VERT CHALLENGE
- August 25, 2018
- Lincoln, Nebraska (Bob Devaney Sports Center)
- #6 Texas vs. #7 Florida recap from Saturday
Oregon vs. Nebraska
- #3 Nebraska Cornhuskers def. #13 Oregon Ducks 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 26-24)
- Nebraska moves to 1-1, Oregon falls to 0-2
- Box Score
- Recaps: Nebraska / Oregon
- Attendance: 8,135
After a 3-1 loss to Florida on Friday in a 2017 NCAA Championship game rematch, Nebraska bounced-back for a 3-0 sweep of #13 Oregon on Saturday in front of more than 8,000 fans at the Devaney Sports Center.
The win is Nebraska’s first as they start their 2017 title defense season, and gives the Huskers something they didn’t have at the VERT Challenge last year: a win. In 2017, Nebraska started their season 0-2, losing to Oregon and Florida in Gainesville.
Playing again without super-sophomore transfer Lexi Sun, Nebraska again relied heavily on Mikaela Foecke on Saturday. She responded with 15 errorless kills on 40 swings in the match, part of a .246 team hitting percentage that included just 12 hitting errors.
That’s a big improvement for Foecke, who on Friday had 11 kills on 47 attacks with 7 errors, good for just an .085 hitting percentage.
Callie Schwarzenbach (6 kills on 9 swings) and Sami Slaughter (4 kills on 15 swings) also went error-free on the night.
The match didn’t start off as smoothly as it finished for Nebraska. In their first 20 swings, they had just 4 kills and 4 errors, giving up a 15-9 lead for Oregon as the team seemed to have some carryover from their emotional rematch on Friday.
Coming out of a media timeout, though, they went on a 7-2 run, including two out-of-system kills from Foecke, to pull within a point.
A run of Oregon errors, including 7 service errors in the opening set, then gave Nebraska the lead and the set.
Nebraska would hardly trail the rest of the match, as their offense settled down a little and they hit .412 in the 2nd set and .238 in the clinching 3rd.
Neither team did much in blocking or serving. Oregon had an edge in team locks 5-4, led by 4 block assists from Ronika Stone. They also out-aced Nebraska 3-2, but those aces came with 12 service errors.
While Nebraska’s offense was generally pretty conservative and error free, it lacked explosiveness that should come with Sun returns from a back injury.
The top scorer for Oregon was Lindsey Vander Weide, who had 11 kills, 6 errors, and 37 attacks for a .135 hitting percentage. She also contributed an ace and a block assist in the match, plus 9 digs to just-miss a second-straight double double.
Oregon will get a reprieve next week from their top-10 gauntlet with matches against Portland State, Utah Valley, Long Beach State, and Arkansas-Pine Bluff, before diving in to Big Ten front-runners Minnesota and Penn State in the Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge.
Nebraska will host another tournament next weekend, the Ameritas Players Challenge, where they’ll welcome in Ohio, Wake Forest, and Santa Clara.
Match Point
MATCH POINT 👇#Huskers pic.twitter.com/bxMw42TGyC
— Husker Volleyball (@Huskervball) August 26, 2018
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