Nebraska Volleyball beats top 25 opponents and sweeps Arizona State

Sunscreen applied. Sun Devils defeated.

No. 5 Nebraska (7-1) played its second game in four days and defeated No. 14 Arizona St (7-1) 25-20, 26-24, 25-19.

Nebraska performed brilliantly on offense, scoring 48 kills and making only 13 errors, and achieved a team hitting percentage of .319.

Arizona State posted a .213 batting average as a team, led by Geli Cyr, who finished with 14 kills and a .357 slugging percentage. Argentina Ung led the Sun Devils' offense with 35 assists and 15 digs to keep the ball from touching the court.

Despite a slow start, Merritt Beason finished with the most kills in the game, leading the way with 15 kills and just three errors, for a .429 hit rate. The captain also contributed three blocks.

Bergen Reilly again led a balanced Huskers attack, recording another double-double with 41 assists and 15 digs while contributing two blocks.

Andi Jackson and Harper Murray each scored 10 kills, with Murray also contributing nine digs. Rebekah Allick only needed 13 shots, but converted them into seven kills and was also a problem for the opponent at the net with five blocks.

In the first set of the game, both teams showed excellent offense.

In a back-and-forth from the first serve, both teams pulled away at an incredible pace, Nebraska at 90% and Arizona State at 72%. Nebraska took a 5-4 lead on a kill from Jackson, starting the match at 6-6 before committing their first error late in the first set, and the Big Red never trailed for the rest of the set.

The second set was more closely contested. Arizona State led 15-12 at the media timeout. The teams then traded leads several times before the Huskers called a timeout when they were trailing 22-21.

Several consecutive attack errors by Murray led to a team meeting with coach John Cook. The timeout resulted in a service error by the Sun Devils. The visitors finished the game with 12 points.

A double stuff block by Nebraska to retake the lead. The Huskers closed out the second set with a 5-2 win over Arizona State to take the win.

In the third set, another Husker rose to the challenge. Harper Murray made six of her ten kills in the final set to lead a set that saw only three lead changes.

Next up for the Huskers is the final game of the Nebraska Classic. Nebraska faces Wichita State on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. CDT.

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