No. 2 Nebraska goes the distance to beat Purdue in first B1G road match

WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana — Things learned Friday at Purdue:

— The Nebraska freshmen, talented as they are, probably now believe people when they say how tough it is on the road in the Big Ten.

— Purdue is scrappy as ever.

— There are simply so many outstanding freshmen in NCAA women’s volleyball and seven of them started here in Nebraska’s 23-25, 25-22, 25-18, 19-25, 15-12 victory.

— Two of those kids were simply fantastic as Harper Murray led Nebraska with a career-high 21 kills, three assists, two blocks and 10 digs; and Chloe Chicoine, generously listed at 5-foot-10, had 18 kills for Purdue while hitting .359 to go with an ace, a block and seven digs.

“We’re both really young teams but we’re both pretty good,” Chicoine said. “It’s really fun playing against each other.”

— John Shondell has left the Purdue program after 20-plus years.

The crowd of 2,415 inside cozy and uber-loud Holloway Gym had plenty to cheer about from the get-go as AVCA No. 17 Purdue (8-4, 2-1 Big Ten) took it right to the unbeaten Huskers (12-0, 3-0), the No. 2 team in the VolleyballMag.com Super 16 Media Poll. Purdue, which squandered a five-point second-set lead, rallied from a 19-16 deficit in the fourth by scoring the last 10 points of the set.

“We were out of sorts tonight,” Nebraska coach John Cook said. “We’ve no rhythm offensively like we’ve had … But Purdue played really, really well and those two left-side hitters (Chicoine and Eva Hudson, who had 19 kills) did a really nice job. 

“But we found a way to win. We haven’t been in a five-gamer all year and I really like how we responded in game five.”

Not only had the Huskers not gone the distance, they’d only lost sets to Creighton, Stanford and Kentucky, and never the first of a match. Nebbraska swept Ohio State and Minnesota to open Big Ten play.

Against Purdue, junior Merritt Beason led with 19 kills while hitting .368 to go with five blocks and nine digs. Another freshman, Andi Jackson, had 12 kills, an assist and seven blocks. Freshman DS Laney Choboy had 14 digs and two assists and freshman setter Reilly Bergen had five kills in nine errorless tries, 54 assists, an ace, a block and 12 digs. Sophomore middle Bekka Allick had nine kills with two errors in 14 attacks, two digs and eight blocks, four solo.

There’s one rotation where the Huskers’ front line consists of Jackson, Reilly and Murray, whose last of her 21 kills was the match…