Nebraska Dominates Penn State for Another Sweep

LINCOLN—Nebraska didn’t want to waste any time Friday evening — it had a Big Ten championship to celebrate. 

The top-ranked Huskers needed just 1 hour, 13 minutes to finish off No. 25 Penn State in a 25-14, 25-11, 25-14 sweep Friday evening in front of 8,537 black-clad fans at the Devaney Center.

After the match, the Huskers (29-0, 19-0) were officially presented with the Big Ten championship trophy, along with commemorative shirts, hats and medals. They took plenty of pictures and made TikToks while sharing hugs and celebrating with their family and friends. 

When Nebraska clinched the Big Ten title during the last two seasons, they were presented the trophy on the road: at Iowa in 2023 and at Maryland last year. Even though they locked up sole possession of first place Saturday at Indiana, the Huskers asked if they could delay the official ceremony until a home match. 

Junior middle blocker Andi Jackson said celebrating at home allowed her parents, as well as her aunt, uncle and two cousins in the stands for the match. 

“It’s just so special getting to do it in front of our fans, and one thing that I’m super happy about, too, is our families are here. When we’re away, not everyone’s family has the opportunity to go,” Jackson said. “The fans do so much for us, and we want them to be a part of this special moment. It’s a super cool thing that we get to celebrate here and celebrate out on the court.”

The victory was the Huskers’ quickest match of the season. It was two minutes faster than NU’s sweep over Michigan on Sept. 24, and the fifth time this season that they’ve finished off an opponent in less than 80 minutes. 

The fast match time was aided by only one replay challenge, which Nebraska won after a quick review, and the Nittany Lions did not call any timeouts in the third set. 

The Huskers also held Penn State under 40 total points for the second time this season. NU limited the Nittany Lions to just 34 total points the first time they played and gave up just five more in Friday’s match. 

After losing to Penn State twice last season, including in the national semifinals after having match point, junior outside hitter Harper Murray said they wanted to make a statement against the Nittany Lions this season. 

“I feel like we got our redemption back from last year, and that’s something a lot of us never have forgotten, and I’m sure we won’t,” She said. “It feels great to come out here the past few months and beat them in a sweep, both times, especially in their gym, because that’s a hard gym to play in, so it’s really cool for us.”

Nebraska finished hitting .385 with nine blocks and seven aces while limiting PSU to just a .011 hitting percentage. Murray led NU with 11 kills at a .476 clip while Bergen Reilly tallied 29 assists, a team-high 12 digs, two blocks, two aces and two kills.  

Rebekah Allick added nine kills with no errors for a career-best .750 hitting percentage. Allick, Murray and Jackson all recorded four blocks. Jackson also chipped in six kills, while Taylor Landfair and Virginia Adriano finished with five kills each. 

“This game tonight was honestly probably the best we’ve played all year,” Murray said. “There were absolutely no cracks tonight, and I feel like that just shows our potential, and that’s how we need to continue to play the next seven games.”

The Huskers slowly pulled away in the first set, siding out Penn State each of its first 12 times to serve. By the time PSU scored on its serve, the Nittany Lions were already down 21-13. PSU didn’t score on its serve in the second set until it was down 23-9. 

For the match, the Huskers finished with an 88 sideout percentage and scored on more than half their serves. 

NU also limited All-American Kennedy Martin to 11 kills, which tied her second-lowest output this season. (Her only lower total was seven kills in two sets against New Hampshire.) The junior opposite also set a season-low with a .094 hitting percentage on 32 swings. Five of her eight attack errors came via NU blocks.

Nebraska coach Dani Busboom Kelly said the key to slowing Martin down was effective serving, which they ramped up after a slow start. 

“The first 15 points, our serve was a little bit weak, but we were encouraging them to keep going for it, and that eventually we’d start to crack them,” she said. “We had great prep on her. We had a whole week to prepare, which is really nice, and we know she’s going to get the ball a lot, so it’s just executing what we worked on in practice.”

The Huskers cranked up their serving in the second set and recorded five aces. Teraya Sigler recorded an ace on the second point of the set. Later, Virginia Adriano added back-to-back serves that Penn State could not handle. Then Reilly got in on the act with consecutive aces that were part of the Huskers’ first 8-0 run of the season. 

After the Nittany Lions took their only lead of the match — 2-1 in the third set — NU responded by winning the next four points and never looking back. Penn State didn’t help their cause as it missed five serves in the set. 

The Nittany Lions (17-12, 11-8) have never lost eight matches in a conference season, and the last time they lost 12 matches in any year was 1982, when they went 26–15 under fourth-year head coach Russ Rose. 

The NU players also fed off the energy of the crowd, which was almost entirely wearing black for the first-ever Black Out at the Devaney Center. With the players wearing long-sleeved black jerseys, Busboom Kelly got in on the action by wearing her sequined Adidas jacket that Murray presented to her before the season. 

Jackson said the Huskers were eager to see how their home arena would look in black because they are used to it being covered in red.

“With the blackout and everything else going on, it was so exciting,” she said. “It was a really cool atmosphere to be in. I think the crowd brought so much energy. It was just an overall different vibe. They were so loud between points, and it was just a really, really fun atmosphere to play in.”

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