Huskers Sweep Texas Tech

 

Lincoln ? Hannah Werth and Brooke Delano combined for 21 kills, leading No. 8 Nebraska to a 3-0 sweep (25-16, 26-23, 25-11) of Texas Tech Wednesday evening at the NU Coliseum.

The Huskers, who improved to 8-2 and won their Big 12 opener for the 10th consecutive year, got strong efforts from Werth, a freshman who totaled a match-high 11 kills on .375 hitting and 10 digs for her second straight double-double and Delano, who finished with 10 kills on .474 hitting as NU collected its fifth sweep of the year.

Delano, who also topped NU with three blocks, has now been in double figures in kills in each of the last three matches as Nebraska bounced back from Sunday’s loss to UCLA. Nebraska held Texas Tech to .041 hitting, including -.061 in the opener and .000 in the finale.

Nebraska broke open a close set midway through in posting a 25-16 victory in the opener. Delano powered the Huskers with four kills on .429 hitting while adding a pair of blocks in the set. In all, the Huskers hit .300, as outside hitters Hannah Werth and Tara Mueller combined for six kills.  Trailing 9-8, Delano sparked a 5-0 Husker spurt, as the sophomore started the run with a kill before running off four straight points from the service line, capped by her second kill of the run to make it 13-9 for NU.  The Red Raiders stayed within 16-13 before kills from Werth and Delano and a pair of Red Raider miscues pushed the Husker lead to seven points, at 20-13, and put the set out of reach.

The Huskers could not sustain the momentum in the second set and trailed for most of the set before regrouping for a 25-23 win to take a 2-0 lead into the locker room. Nebraska, which committed a rash of hitting miscues early in the set, hit just .075, but held Texas Tech to .143 and benefitted from five Red Raider service errors. NU dug itself an early 4-0 hole and trailed 10-6 before kills from Delano and Kaitlynn James helped NU take four of the next five rallies to pull within 11-10 on an Allison McNeal kill. Texas Tech clung to its lead and was ahead 20-19 before the Huskers made their push. Jordan Wilberger, who came into the lineup after McNeal suffered a bloody nose, tied the score at 20 with a kill before Mueller found the corner with Nebraska’s first ace of the evening to put NU up 21-20. NU eventually pushed the lead to 23-20 before Tech ran off three straight points, tying the score at 23 after a Caroline Courtney kill. Nebraska then regained the lead after a Red Raider error before Delano found the floor with a kill to clinch the set.

The third set was an entirely different story, as the Huskers raced out to a 9-2 lead and cruised to a 25-11 victory. It was a trio of freshmen who paced NU in the finale, as Werth and Gina Mancuso combined or eight kills without an error on 14 swings, while Megan Pendergast energized the crowd with a six point run at the service line, drawing a standing ovation from the sellout crowd of 4,041. After using a pair of 4-0 runs, Nebraska built a 13-5 after Delano’s ace. Tech pulled to within 15-7 but a Mancuso kill sent Pendergast to the service line for the first time all night. The freshman from League City, Texas ripped an ace on her first serve and baffled the Red Raiders with tough serving that helped the Huskers push the margin to 22-7 after a Werth kill.

Amanda Dowdy led Texas Tech (8-2, 0-1 Big 12) with nine kills and eight digs, as the Red Raiders lost for the 26th consecutive time against Nebraska.

The Huskers will hit the road Saturday night to take on the Colorado Buffaloes, as first serve in the Coors Event Center is slated for 8 p.m (central). Listen to all of the action on selected Husker Sports Network Stations and Huskers.com. There will be no video available on HuskersNside on Saturday.

Coach John Cook
Opening Statement
“I thought we were a little bit flat today. I think we still have a lingering effect from playing three matches last week and especially on Sunday, but I was glad to see our team to kind of pull out of it. You can see when we put in some players that didn’t play much last week, and they looked fresh. They did some nice things - Kaitlynn James and Megan Pendergast, Alli (McNeal) was about ready to jump over the net she was jumping so high. And of course, she learned her lesson that in blocking sometimes it’s bad to jump too high. We have a lot of things to work on, and we have a long, long way to go before we’re becoming a great team. We have to go back to work tomorrow.”

On Megan Pendergrast
“She had a horrible week of practice last week and that’s one of the reasons we haven’t been playing her, but man, I loved the way she responded tonight. She was really hitting her jump serve well in practice today so I told her to be ready to go tonight. She made a big statement.”

On the team
“They’re just still tentative. I’m going to be interested to see how we play on the road. I have a feeling we might play better. I just think we’ll get our confidence. I have a feeling if we get on the road, that expectation well go away. I’m really curious. That’s going to be my prediction that we’ll play really well Saturday because we won’t be worried about win streaks and things like that. We’ll be worried about competing. That’s my prediction, but I think we’re still lingering with some of those expectations. Again, that’s across the board in all sports. Sometimes when you get those big expectations and you put too much on yourself, it’s hard to live up to that and you never feel like you’re doing it and you start pressing. My job is to take away some of that from them. I have to figure out how to do that.”

On Brooke Delano
“When we moved Brooke to the middle, we thought she could be a great player. She certainly continues to get better and is putting up great numbers. Anytime you’re M-1 gets 19 sets, she was second on our team in set attempts, our team is doing a great job. That’s going to free up a lot of other people. You have to have that. If you’re running a 5-1, you have to have a great M-1 to get the ball to. Brooke’s doing a great job of working to get into that position.”

Brooke Delano Quotes
On her confidence
“I think my confidence comes from my teammates. If I wasn’t confident myself I wouldn’t. I have confidence in the person putting the pass up, and I have confidence that the setter is going to make a great set and that gives me confidence in myself. I think my confidence comes through every single one of my teammates.”

On being the M-1 this year
“I’m just happy I’m playing. I don’t want to take it for granted. Like I said, my teammates, I can’t do anything without my team. I’m a middle, so if I don’t have a good pass you can’t set the middle. My team is doing a great job.”

Megan Pendergast
On today’s match
“We felt good about our play in a certain way, like we were in control in the match. But we were missing a level, we needed one more step.”

On being ready to serve
“I think Coach (Cook) has asked me every single day if I’m ready to go in and serve and I say I’m always ready. I think everyone ? Kaitlynn (James) came in and hit, like, 1.000 tonight ? so I think everyone is ready no matter who we put in and what position. I think they would come in and do a great job.”