Photo Showcase: Nebraska vs. Jackson State
Box Score: Nebraska 3, Jackson State 0
Notes: 39th dig? Against the NCAA
NCAA Bracket: Printable
NCAA Bracket: Interactive
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LINCOLN — After an arduous regular season that had fans wondering if the Nebraska volleyball team had run out of gas after getting through its first year in the rugged Big Ten, the Huskers showed a new season may bring new life.
No. 2 seed Nebraska showed no ill effects from the last couple weeks of spotty play with a 25-10, 25-16, 25-13 win against Jackson State to open the NCAA tournament at the NU Coliseum on Thursday.
The Huskers advanced to Friday's second-round match against former Big 12 rival Kansas State, which swept Wichita State in the opener Thursday afternoon.
Gina Mancuso and Brooke Delano each had 10 kills in a balanced effort in which the Huskers hit a season-high .438 and controlled the match from start to finish against a team making the program's first NCAA appearance.
“I thought our team showed up and was very crisp tonight and took care of business,” Nebraska coach John Cook said.
Nebraska (25-4) won its opening-round NCAA tournament match for the 28th straight year and had fun doing it. After two losses and several admittedly ugly wins in the past three weeks, there was a discernible weariness around the program as NU clinched the Big Ten championship.
But with only three days to prepare for the NCAA opener, the Huskers dialed down practices and entered Thursday's match with a focus on living in the moment.
“This was a smile, team, fun, chemistry match tonight,” Delano said.
Added Mancuso: “We just wanted to cherish every point.”
There were plenty of Nebraska points to cherish as the Huskers ran off long strings in each game. NU put together two separate 8-0 runs in Game 1, hitting .500. Nebraska topped that with a .520 clip in Game 3 and finished with just eight attack errors against the undersized Lady Tigers, whose tallest starter was 6-2.
It was the fifth time this season the Huskers kept their error tally in single digits.
Morgan Broekhuis added nine kills, and Hannah Werth chipped in seven kills with 11 digs. Setter Lauren Cook handed out 35 assists, and no NU player took more than 20 swings.
Jackson State (29-10) hit just .022 and was dealt fits by the Huskers' size advantage. Junior Christine Edwards led all players with 15 kills, but needed 49 swings to get there.
“We knew we had to play almost a perfect game,” Jackson State coach Rose Washington said. “That's just the reality. As the match went on, size was a factor, but basically as the match went on, we needed to really, really rely on our fundamentals. We weren't as consistent in that area as we needed to. As volleyball enthusiasts know, it's all about the pass. We broke down a little bit on the serve receive and pass.”
The Lady Tigers saw their 25-match winning streak end, but said they were pleased with making history as the program's first team to advance to the postseason. Senior setter LaToya Clark admitted that her team was somewhat in awe playing before a sellout crowd of 4,192 fans in the Coliseum, but added that the Lady Tigers came to Lincoln knowing that they should embrace the experience regardless of the result.
“I think at first we were kind of like ‘Whoo, this is different,' ” Clark said. “After that, we just kind of shook it off and took it as another game, another opportunity we were blessed to play with.”
Cook said he was pleased with the Huskers' ability to refocus in a short week of preparation coming off a season-ending loss at Northwestern on Saturday. Nebraska was able to adjust to the slower tempo Jackson State ran on offense and avoided a prolonged battle.
Big leads enabled the Huskers to rotate in plenty of subs. NU played junior Paige Hubl at libero in place of starter Lara Dykstra for the final two games and got sufficient minutes for role players like defensive specialist Shelby Winkelmann and middle blocker Hayley Thramer.
“I wanted to get Shelby and Paige some game time tonight because I've noticed in my experience coaching the NCAA tournament tends to bring out a little more nerves,” Cook said. “It's different, the crowd is more amped up, it's different teams, so I just wanted to get these guys in a little bit so going down the stretch they're comfortable. I played everybody I could tonight.”
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