EAST LANSING, Mich. – The No. 3 Nebraska volleyball team swept Michigan State 25-18, 25-23, 25-9 on Thursday night at the Breslin Center.
The Huskers extended their Big Ten record to 5-0 and moved to 13-1 this season. The Spartans dropped to 10-6 and 1-4 in the Big Ten.
Bekka Allick had eight kills and three blocks and hit .636 to pace the Huskers to a .358 hitting percentage as a team. Madi Kubik posted eight kills, and Whitney Lauenstein also had eight kills to go with four blocks and a .462 hitting percentage.
Kaitlyn Hord connected for six kills on .500 hitting with a match-high six blocks. Combined with Allick, the Husker middle blockers had 14 kills on 21 swings with two errors (.571) and nine blocks.
Lindsay Krause chipped in five kills, and Maggie Mendelson added four kills on five swings (.800) with a pair of blocks. Anni Evans set 15 assists, while Kennedi Orr put up 13. Lexi Rodriguez had a team-high 11 digs.
Nebraska had advantages in kills (40-26), digs (32-29) and blocks (9-4). Service aces were even at 5-5, while the Huskers committed two more service errors than Michigan State (7-5). While the Huskers hit better than .300 for the seventh time in 14 matches, their nation’s top-ranked defense performed admirably once again, holding the Spartans to .031 for the match.
Aliyah Moore had seven kills to lead the Spartans.
Set 1: The set was tied at 4-4 when a Lauenstein kill and solo block by Allick started a 4-0 Husker run to make it 8-4. Allick contributed a pair of kills and Mendelson and Krause added a pair to make it 13-7 Huskers and force a Michigan State timeout. Another kill by Krause gave NU a seven-point lead, 16-9, and the Huskers led by seven at 20-13 after kills by Allick and Kubik. But Michigan State got a kill by Moore and back-to-back aces by Jayhlin Swain to pull within 20-16. After a timeout, Kubik and Krause answered with kills to restore a 22-16 lead, and Allick and Hord produced two more for set point at 24-17. A Michigan State service error gave NU a 25-18 win. The Huskers hit .565 in the set, a season best. Michigan State hit .094.
Set 2: The Huskers went up 10-6 after back-to-back kills by Krause and Hord. But a Husker service error was followed by Michigan State’s fifth ace of the match, and the Spartans rallied to tie the set at 11-11. But NU regained a 15-12 lead at…
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