Banwarth?s Record-Setting Night Paces NU to Sweep

Lincoln ? Behind a record night from Kayla Banwarth, No. 9 Nebraska collected its 20th win of the season, sweeping No. 24 Baylor, 3-0 (25-16, 25-21, 25-20) Wednesday night.

Banwarth keyed a stifling defensive effort by Nebraska (20-6, 13-4 Big 12), collecting 32 digs, establishing school and building records for a three-set match. The performance not only tied her career best, set earlier this season in a five-set win over Minnesota, but was the most by any player in the NU Coliseum since 1987.

Banwarth’s effort highlight one of the best defensive efforts of the year, as Nebraska held Baylor to a season-low .089 team hitting percentage. The Huskers had at least 10 digs, as outside hitters Tara Mueller and Hannah Werth added 10 apiece for NU, while Kori Cooper totaled a season-high five blocks, including three solos, as NU totaled nine blocks on the night.

While Banwarth’s floor defense carried the night, the Huskers received another strong performance from Lindsey Licht, who totaled a match-high 13 kills on .522 hitting. It was the second straight match Licht hit over .500 and the fourth time in the last five matches the junior right side attacker led the Huskers in kills. Mueller joined Licht in double figures with 12 kills in picking up her seventh double-double of the season.

Nebraska’s defense keyed a strong start, as the Huskers posted a 25-16 victory. NU held the Bears to -.051 hitting, as Banwarth collected nine digs, while NU had four blocks, including two by Cooper.  With an 11-10 lead, Brooke Delano helped Nebraska run off four straight points, as her solo block and kill helped Nebraska take a 15-10 lead at the media timeout. The run continued moments later, as kills from Licht and Mueller and an ace by Gina Mancuso capped the 8-1 run, putting Nebraska ahead by a comfortable 19-11 margin. BU would pull to within 21-15, but an attack error and a Mueller kill, one of four in the set, pushed the margin back to a comfortable eight-point margin.

In the second set, the Huskers led from start to finish and held off a late Baylor charge to win 25-21 and take a 2-0 lead into the locker room. Licht and Mueller had five kills apiece for NU, which also had three service aces in the set. Baylor played well in the set, committing only one unforced error, but could not consistently put the ball down, as NU totaled 22 digs in the set. Leading 9-7, Nebraska took control winning seven of the next 10 rallies to build a 16-10 lead on a Delano kill. The Bears were down 19-13 before running off four straight points to get within 19-17, only to see Werth and Cooper combine on a block before a Sydney Anderson ace made it a four-point lead and forced BU to take a timeout. From there, the Huskers were able to side out the rest of the set, as a Mueller kill finished the set.

The finale was even for most of the set until the Huskers pulled away late for a 25-20 win to complete its fourth straight set. Banwarth was the key with 13 of the Huskers’ 22 digs, while Licht paced the attack with five kills on eight swings. Nebraska jumped out to an early 5-1 lead on strong serving by Werth, but Baylor came right back winning seven of the next 10 rallies to even the score at eight. The teams traded points until Nebraska broke free midway through the set. Leading 17-16, kills from Werth and Delano gave NU a three-point cushion and forced a Bears’ timeout. NU eventually got to within 20-18, but kills from Werth and Muller started a 4-1 run, capped by a solo block from Delano to make it 24-19. The sophomore middle blocker ended the match moments later with her sixth kill of the match.

Katie Sanders led Baylor with nine kills, as the Bears committed 22 hitting errors and did not record an ace against Nebraska.

The Huskers return to action Saturday afternoon, as they travel to Kansas. First serve is set for 3 p.m. and the match will be carried on selected Husker Sports Network stations and on Huskers.com following the conclusion of the Nebraska men’s basketball game against TCU.

Tara Mueller
On Kayla Banwarth’s 32 digs
“I think it’s something that Kayla has been working on every day in practice and I think that she just knows where to be all of the time. That’s awesome. I’m really proud of her.”

On a hitter’s frustration
“When you make the hardest hit you can and they pop it up somehow. That just frustrates you. We’ve been working really hard on our defense and putting the ball away out of system, having different people setting the ball. That’s frustrating to teams when you can be out of system and still score. That’s how we’re trying to keep pressure on teams. “

On what Mueller was focused on against Baylor
“I was just focusing on what I could do and focusing on making shots that I practice and that we practice every day. I was just trying to find the open spaces on the court.”

On Nebraska’s attitude coming into the match
“We were really excited. We knew that they were going to come out fighting. Everyone is fighting for the tournament. We came out really strong and we came out having fun and doing what we can do as a team and building off of the momentum from our last matches. We just need to keep rolling off of that.”

Kayla Banwarth
On when other teams are making a lot of digs
“When teams are scrappy and when teams are getting crazy digs, it’s so annoying. I’m not even a hitter and that bothers me. “

On working on out-of-system balls
“We’ve taken time to work on it in practice and all the miscommunications we might have had in the beginning of the season, we’ve worked out and we’ve gone through and specifically worked on situations and all of that work is starting to pay off.”

On Nebraska’s passing
“I think our passing is a lot better than it was a month ago. We’re just getting more practice on it every day and we’re getting better at it and we’re more comfortable with it.”

Nebraska Coach John Cook
Opening Statement
“We were a little rough around the edges tonight. Kayla dominated the court. I thought Lindsey Licht had another great night. She took advantage of the matchups. Our game plan going in was to not let their middles, (Anna) Breyfogle, (Elizabeth) Graham, and (Torri) Campbell, have great nights. If you look at their wins and the matches they’ve done well in, those guys have had big nights. Two of them hit negative tonight, even though their left sides hit some okay numbers. We did a nice job with our blocking defense and shutting those guys down. We held them to .089.”

On Nebraska’s errors
“We were just making a few too many errors. We were giving them a few too many points compared to where we have been the past four or five matches. That was something we have to work on and get better at. If you count up how many points we gave them, it was too many. But we did some really good things. If you hold somebody to .089, that’s a pretty nice night.”

On Kayla Banwarth
“I just felt like she controlled the court tonight. She passed the jump serve from (Taylor) Barnes, who leads the Big 12 in aces per game. She had 32 digs and that’s giving us a lot of opportunities, but we didn’t take advantage of all of them. We made some unforced hitting errors. A lot of those digs, Sydney (Anderson) set to (Lindsey) Licht behind her one-on-one, and Lindsey is killing them. I think she’s gone two matches there with one error. You guys have been around long enough to know that when a libero has a great night, the impact it has on a team. It impacted our team in a really positive way and it impacted Baylor in a negative way.”

On Nebraska’s game tonight
“I know the level we can play at and what we have to play at, but we still have nice win tonight. I told them it was a good win, but we have to get better. It’s a nice win over a ranked team, 3-0, with pretty dominating scores. If you look at the scores, it looked like we blew them out, but it didn’t look like that to me. It looked like we were just on the verge of one of those jump servers getting hot or Torri Campbell getting hot. We did a nice job of controlling Taylor Barnes too. She had eight kills against kills and hit .500. We did a really nice job on that.’