Motivated Huskers blast Baylor
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Somewhere in cyberspace, there is a mom who should be putting together her coaching resume.
A few weeks back, after watching Texas rock Nebraska’s defense and after seeing the Huskers stand and watch as innocent serves turned into aces, that mom had seen enough.
This wasn’t the Nebraska volleyball team she was used to seeing. And like any fan in today’s Web-driven world, she sent off an e-mail.
Dear John Cook, it presumably began.
“I shared it with the team and said, ‘This is the perception out there. What are we going to do about it?’” Cook said earlier this week. “We upped it in practice, and they’re responding.”
Thanks to what Cook termed “great play” in games one and two, what loomed as a dangerous trip to Baylor on Wednesday night was really no contest.
The second-ranked Huskers won 30-11, 30-18, 30-26 before 627 in Waco, Texas, holding the Bears to .086 hitting. Statistically, it was Nebraska’s best defensive night since facing the same Baylor team seven weeks ago in Lincoln.
No opponent, however, has hit better than .135 against NU over the last five matches. Freshman Kayla Banwarth said the fan’s note served as a wake-up call for Nebraska’s team.
“For someone to come out and say that, it must have been pretty obvious that we weren’t playing wholeheartedly,” Banwarth said in a telephone interview following Wednesday’s win.
“We realize that soon it’s going to be tournament time, and tonight, I thought in games one and two we were awesome defensively,” she added. “We were going for everything.”
In her fourth match as NU’s starting libero, Banwarth helped to key what were flawless opening games against the Bears (14-16, 6-13).
Nebraska (26-1, 18-1) closed out game one by winning 25 of 30 rallies, including nine in a row on Sarah Pavan’s serve. The senior nailed a career-high five aces to move into fourth place on NU’s all-time list.
NU built a 7-1 lead in game two, and ultimately, the Huskers finished with a season-high nine aces and hit .319. Jordan Larson had 12 kills and Christina Houghtelling added 17 digs to lead the Huskers.
But while NU couldn’t maintain its intensity throughout, there was never the drama that Big 12 co-leader Texas faced on Wednesday night in snowy Ames, Iowa.
The No. 3-ranked Longhorns, after easily winning games one and two, had to rally from down 14-10 in game five to escape with a 30-19, 30-24, 24-30, 32-34, 18-16 win. Texas successfully dodged six match points to keep alive its hopes of winning at least a share of the program’s first league title since 1997.
Texas returns home Saturday to take on No. 12-ranked Kansas State, while the Huskers will face last-place Texas Tech on Senior Night at the Coliseum. First serve is at 7 p.m.
— Todd Henrichs
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