Volleyball Sets Attendance Record in Battle with No. 2 Nebraska

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State volleyball played the No. 2-ranked team in the country tough on Friday night, falling to Nebraska 3-1 (23-25, 25-16, 15-25, 25-11) from the Breslin Center. With 8,789 fans in attendance the Spartans set a new program attendance record to break the previous mark of 7,326 set against Michigan on Oct. 14, 2022.
 
With a loss the Spartans drop to 11-5 overall and 3-2 in the B1G prior to facing Northwestern on Saturday night in East Lansing. Nebraska improves to 14-0 overall and 5-0 in conference action.
 
“Every day we’re getting better and we’re finding new ways to score,” said Michigan State head volleyball coach Leah Johnson. “They challenged us in sets three and four with their serving, but in sets one and two we won the serve-pass game. I thought we were executing our game plan wonderfully. I’ll look to build from that.”
 
Freshman outside hitter Taylah Holdem led all players on Friday with 16 kills and posted her fourth consecutive double-double with 11 digs in addition to two blocks. Junior outside hitter Grace Kelly had six kills and sophomore middle blocker Evie Doezema had five on just nine attempts to hit .444. Freshman setter Cameron Berger led MSU with 13 assists while junior setter Julia Bishop added 10 along with seven digs. Senior libero Nalani Iosia led all players with 16 digs and junior outside hitter Aliyah Moore tied for the match-high with four blocks.
 
MSU was out-hit .168 to .088 for the match but held Nebraska to -.103 hitting in set two. Nebraska had not hit negative in a set all season and last hit negative in the fifth set against Oregon in the NCAA Tournament last season when they hit -.050. Hitting .168 was the second-lowest mark of the season for the Cornhuskers. The Spartans were out-blocked 7-6, but finished with 50 digs to Nebraska’s 45.
 
Harper Murray led Nebraska with 12 kills, hitting .176 with seven digs. Lindsay Krause was efficient with nine kills hitting .381. Becka Allick had four blocks to tie for the match high. Bergen Reilly led all players with 29 assists and Lexi Rodriguez posted 13 digs.
 
Michigan State hung tough with the No. 2-ranked Cornhuskers in set one, leading by as many as five in the first, 20-15, and forced Nebraska to burn each of its timeouts early. A kill by Kelly put MSU up 23-21 to…