Picture with Madi Kubik after the game at Bob Devaney Sports Center on October 23. Nebraska beat Purdue that night 3-0.
On Saturday, December 11, Nebraska faced Texas in the regional finals for the 2021 NCAA Volleyball Tournament. The 10th seed Cornhuskers beat the 2nd seed Longhorns 3-1.
Last year, Texas beat Nebraska in the regional finals. However, Texas was not able to beat Kentucky in the national championship.
The tournament began with the two teams facing non-seeded teams. Non-seeded teams are those in the tournament who did not receive a ranking. Those matches resulted in easy sweeps for the Longhorns and Cornhuskers. A ‘sweep’ in volleyball is when a team wins all three sets versus their opponent.
Next, Texas faced Rice University and Nebraska faced Florida State. Again, both teams beat their opponent 3-0.
The third round was more difficult for Texas, as they barely won in a fifth set against Washington. Washington was the 15th seed in the tournament, and they were able to pick up two sets against 2nd seeded Texas.
Nebraska made it to the third round to play Illinois who beat last year’s championship winner Kentucky. Kentucky was the 7th seed in the tournament, and Illinois was a non-seeded team.
Evidently, Texas and Nebraska were to play each other in the regional finals in order to be eligible for the semifinals.
The game began with Nebraska taking the lead early on. The final score of the first set was 25-19, and Nebraska’s hitting percentage was way above Texas’ percentage.
The second set began with Nebraska pulling an early lead, but once the score was 21-17 with Nebraska up, Texas began to gain momentum and went on a 4-0 scoring run. The score was eventually tied at 21, but with a few service errors from Texas, Nebraska made the finish to 25 first.
The third set was back and forth in terms of points. Nebraska would score two points, then Texas would score two points. If Nebraska scored one, Texas would tie it right back up.
Towards the end however, Texas pulled away and claimed the third set. The score was a reverse of the second set as it was 25-23 again, but Texas closed it out instead of Nebraska.
The fourth set featured Nebraska pulling away early on again. As it progressed, Texas made many service errors and attack errors that led to Nebraska claiming a six point lead. The score was 18-12, and Texas began to gain momentum after that point.
Texas’ Skylar Fields and Logan Eggleston began to hit more accurately thus giving Texas more points. In the end, Nebraska raced to 25 first with a four point difference over Texas.
When looking at the statistics of the game which anyone could find on the Husker Volleyball Instagram page, Nebraska outshined Texas in every statistic except blocking.
Nebraska hit .252 and Texas hit .250, which is a very close statistic. However, Nebraska had 58 kills and 55 digs compared to Texas’ 49 kills and 42 digs. Nebraska had nine aces from players like defensive specialist Kaylei Akana, Kenzie Knuckles, and Lexi Rodriguez.
Most of the kills from the night were from freshmen Lindsay Krause and Ally Batenhorst. Madi Kubik reached double digits in kills, but she also had multiple attack errors.
Overall, Nebraska outplayed Texas in order to claim the semifinal spot in the 2021 NCAA volleyball tournament.
