Two takeaways from Nebraska Volleyball’s sweep of Iowa

Nebraska volleyball continued its dominant season with its 42nd straight victory against the Iowa Hawkeyes (25-12, 25-15, 25-17). The Huskers won their fourth straight Big Ten regular season championship last week, so tonight was a win for the four seniors who have contributed so much to the team and college volleyball as a whole.

Read on for two takeaways from the Senior Day sweep.

Seniors celebrate with dominant play

As is tradition, all four Nebraska seniors started the game against Iowa. And, as is tradition with this group of seniors, all four played major roles in the 3-0 sweep of the Hawkeyes.

Laney Choboy, Harper Murray and Bergen Reilly all had important serves throughout the match. Choboy, who got the start as DS, got the Huskers off to a strong start with a four-point service run that began with a forced pass to kill Murray. In the second set, Murray had a six-point service run and Reilly had a three-point run to bring Nebraska to set point. In the third set, Murray delivered another early six-point serve that ended Iowa’s short-lived lead.

Reilly had 35 assists and led the team to a .457 hitting percentage, his third best of the season. Jackson had nine kills without an error, hitting a season-high .750. Murray also had nine kills and hit .353, a top-10 performance for the season.

Defensively, Jackson and Murray combined for three blocks, and Reilly added three. The seniors accounted for 66.6% of the team’s total blocks in this game. Choboy was the only player on the field with double-digit digs, at 10.

This senior class has a dominant regular season record of 126-6. They are four-time Big Ten regular season champions, with a record of 74-2. They were just freshmen for Volleyball Day at Nebraska, where they played in front of a record crowd of 90,003 at Memorial Stadium and competed in the NCAA championship.

Skyler Pierce and the bench made the most of their time

To the surprise of many fans, Skyler Pierce earned his third start at OH2, his first since the weekend of September 25-26 against Rutgers and Ohio State. Pierce is competing for a full-time outside starting job next year and has made a strong case for it in recent games. Against Iowa, Pierce had six kills at a .357 clip, three digs and four blocks, tied for the most on the team.

Nebraska used its bench for an extra week, giving younger players vital game experience before the playoffs. Kenna Cogill had a perfect night of three swings and three kills and her first collegiate ace. Keoni Williams also had three kills and hit .400. Jayden Robinson only took one shot but managed to kill him. And likely future passer, Campbell Flynn added four assists and a few serves in the second set.

Senior night can help realize that this team will soon be these young players’ team. As the season progressed, head coach Dani Busboom Kelly shopped his bench more and more, with new wrinkles and combinations. Not only will this benefit these players in the playoffs, but it will prepare them for next year and beyond.

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