Nebraska volleyball breaks losing streak in Wisconsin with sweep

For the first time since 2013, Nebraska volleyball emerged victorious from the dungeons of the UW Field House in Madison.

The No. 2 Cornhuskers defeated No. 7 Wisconsin 25-21, 25-22, 25-19 on Friday, ending the Badgers' nine-game winning streak.

“I thought our team was very focused and disciplined tonight,” coach John Cook said on the Huskers Radio Network. “They stuck to the game plan. Even when Wisconsin ran, we didn't panic. So that was a huge achievement by our team. Our preparation, Jaylen's game plan and the guys really prepared us well to stop them. In my opinion we have achieved our lowest hit rate in eight years. Great work from our entire team, all employees. It was just a total team effort.”

Cook said he played a clip from the movie “Gladiator” for the team before the game, and the message from it seemed to get through based on their performance.

“I showed them that clip because whatever came out tonight, we had to stick together,” Cook said. “I told them, ‘Look at us; don't look at anything else. And they did a great job at it.”

Nebraska (21-1, 11-0 Big Ten) hit .202 against the Big Ten's top defense and held the Badgers (15-5, 9-2) to .096, more than 200 points below their season-leading conference percentage . Wisconsin had failed to hit .200 just four times all season, and no team had held the Badgers under .100 before Friday. The Huskers blocked the second-best blocking team in the country 10-for-nine, with Rebekah Allick playing on seven stuffs.

“Our middles did a great job tonight and our pin blockers – Harper (Murray) did a great job on Anna (Smrek) and got some stuff,” Cook said. “Taylor (Landfair) came in and got some great stuff too. So that requires discipline. This is a tough place to play, and I don't know how loud it is up here, but it was really loud down there tonight. Sometimes it’s hard to stay focused, but they did a great job.”

Landfair led the Huskers with 13 kills, while Merritt Beason added 11 kills on .391 hitting. Bergen Reilly had 32 assists while Lexi Rodriguez led the defense with a game-high 12 digs and two aces.

Reigning National Player of the Year Sarah Franklin recorded the highest batting average with 16 kills but only hit .184. The 6-foot-9 Smrek hit minus-.084 with 10 errors, while centers Devyn Robinson, Carter Booth and CC Crawford combined for four kills and five errors.

Wisconsin had won 25 straight games at home. Nebraska's first loss of the 2023 season came at UW Field House as part of an eight-game Husker losing streak in Madison. Five of those losses were sweeps and only one went the distance. Beason said the Huskers were confident heading into Friday night and wanted to turn things around.

“It’s hard to play here,” Cook said. “Even Jordan (Larson) said it was a difficult gym, she said it was hard to play in and it was. It's just designed that way and it's different. I'm just really proud of our team, how they stuck with it and how we stayed in the fight point by point. That’s what we need to take from this.”

Wisconsin won three of the first four rallies of the night, but the Huskers quickly rallied to make it 4-1. Eight more ties and three lead changes followed before Nebraska took the lead with a 3-0 run midway through the game to take an 18-15 lead. The Huskers extended the lead to four and then five. Wisconsin saved two set points late, but Beason finished with a laser from the back row.

The Cornhuskers hit .250 with a balanced attack, but it was their defense that made the difference. They recorded six blocks — including four on Franklin — and held the Badgers to .108. Rodriguez and Kennedi Orr also recorded aces.

“I think our blocking was huge in this game,” Beason told Big Ten Network. “We knew they had really good attackers and maybe we didn't get any blocks, but we got a lot of positive attacks and then converted them and we knew that would be the difference in this game.”

There were some wild swings in the second set as Nebraska used a 4-0 run to build a five-point lead in the first half of the set. It didn't last long, however, as the Huskers were stuck during a 9-1 run and the Badgers took a 17-14 lead. Four of those points came on Wisconsin blocks.

Landfair finally got the Huskers back on track with consecutive kills, cutting the lead to one. Wisconsin responded with two straight points, but the Huskers won eight of the next 10 rallies, including two kills each from Landfair and Beason and an ace from Olivia Mauch to secure set point.

Wisconsin got a kill from Booth, but Reilly went back to Beason on the next point and she delivered with a kill through the block. Nebraska hit .171 and held Wisconsin to .061. Beason had seven kills on nine swings in the set.

“I think just coming out of the jump, but also understanding that they're going to make runs and make big plays was huge,” Beason said. “I don’t know, they probably had four five-point runs, but how are we going to react in that moment? That's something we've worked on a lot this year, like, 'Okay, if we're tested and it's a three- or four-point race, how do we break it and then get back into the swing of things?' I think that was huge for us.”

The Huskers continued their momentum in the third set, opening with another ace from Mauch and building an early lead of 7-2. But Wisconsin turned the tables by winning eight of the next 10 rallies to surge ahead.

Five ties followed before the Huskers went on a 4-0 run to take an 18-15 lead. The Badgers cut the lead to one twice, but Nebraska closed the game with a 5-0 run that included Mauch at the service line. The freshman finished with six digs and two aces.

“As I was waiting to do TV there, I grabbed her and said, 'Livvy, you're such a stud,'” Cook said. “She passed great, she served great… Almost every game she broke through for us and then she made some great throws. She had one hell of a night.”

The Husker hit .189 and held the Badgers to .106. Landfair finished strong with five kills on 11 shots to lead the Huskers on the day. She seemed hesitant early on as the Badgers blocked two of her first three swings on off-speed shots, but she eventually let it rip.

“She started really hard,” Cook said. “I'm like, 'Oh my God.' But she did exactly what she was supposed to do, she stuck with it, she got dug in a few times but she got a few big kills when it really mattered. In the third game they continued to attack them. We told her, “score line, score line,” and she just tattooed the ball along the line. But it was fun to see because she worked really hard and was challenged a lot in training.”

Nebraska will have a day to savor the win before returning to finish the weekend at Northwestern on Sunday. The Wildcats lost 3-1 to Illinois on Friday.

First serve at Welsh-Ryan Arena is scheduled for noon CT on Big Ten Plus.