Huskers Fall to Longhorns in Four

Austin, Texas - The No. 2 Nebraska volleyball team dropped its first match of the 2010 Big 12 season on Wednesday night to the No. 10 Texas Longhorns, 1-3 (15-25, 19-25, 27-25, 25-27).

The Huskers (19-2, 11-1) were their own worst enemy on the night as they tied a season high with 30 errors. After hitting over .300 the last three matches Nebraska struggled to find its rhythm and hit a season low of .160, the first time this season the Huskers have hit below .200.

Hannah Werth, Brooke Delano and Lindsey Licht all topped double figures in kills, while Werth added 12 digs to chart her ninth double-double of the season.

The Longhorns stole the momentum right away in set one with wins in the first three rallies. The Longhorns continued to hold a slight advantage at 8-6 when they reeled off four straight to double-up Nebraska, 12-6. With the Longhorns still in control at 18-11 the Huskers found a rhythm and strung together four straight points, including two combo blocks from Delano and Licht, to cut Texas' lead to four and force a timeout from Texas Head Coach Jerritt Elliott.

Nebraska was unable to keep the run going out of the break as Texas took two straight to extend its lead back to six. The Huskers scored just once more in the set and Texas coasted to a 25-15 win.

The Huskers were their own worst enemy in the set as they produced three serving errors and hit .000 as a team (9-9-36).

The Huskers took the first two rallies in set two before Texas responded with a 4-0 run and then the Huskers took the next two rallies to leave the set tied at 4-4. The teams then traded the next eight rallies before Texas took two straight to take a 10-8 lead. After the teams traded service errors Texas' Amber Roberson committed back-to-back errors and the set was once again tied, 11-11.

Texas then took its biggest lead of the set with a 6-1 run before an attack error from Juliann Faucette and a kill from Delano got the Huskers back within three. The Huskers won two of the next three rallies, including another kill from Delano, to cut the Longhorn lead to two at 18-16, but two straight kills from Sha'Dare McNeal and a Husker error quickly pushed the Texas lead back to five. The Huskers could only muster three more points down the stretch and the Longhorns took a 2-0 led in the set with a 25-19 win in the set.

The Huskers continued to struggle to find consistency at the net in the second set and hit just .070 (10-7-43) in the second set. Through two sets the Huskers had committed 23 errors to Texas' 15 errors.

The teams traded the first six rallies in the third set before Texas once again took the lead early, 6-3, with a 3-0 run. With the Longhorns still up at 8-6 the Huskers got on a roll with a 6-1 run as Werth put away four kills during the stretch. Texas responded with its own run of five straight to recapture the lead 14-12.

The Huskers kept firing and with Texas up 16-13 Licht capped a 4-1 Husker run to tie the set at 17-17. The teams traded the next four rallies before the Longhorns took three straight to take a 22-19 lead and force a timeout from Head Coach John Cook. The break served the Huskers well as they responded with three straight of their own to tie the set at 22-22 and force a Texas timeout.

Texas was the first to reach match point at 24-23, but a kill and block from Wilberger on consecutive rallies put the Huskers in position to take the set at 25-24. Rachel Adams tied the set once more with a kill but the Huskers would not be denied as Wilberger put away another kill and Faucette committed an error to get the Huskers back in the match with a 27-25 win.

Nebraska still struggled with attack errors in the set as they committed eight, but the Huskers hit over .100 for the first time all night by hitting at a .250 clip in the set.

Neither team created separation early in set four until Texas took an 8-6 led for the third time in the match. The Husker got within one at 9-8 with a kill from Broekhuis before Texas took the next two to build a three-point lead and force a Husker timeout.

After the teams swapped the first four rallies out of the break Delano notched a kill and Texas followed with an error to get the Huskers back within one, 13-12, but The Huskers were unable overtake the Longhorns though as Texas took four of the next five rallies to take a 17-13 lead, resulting in a second timeout from Cook. The stoppage did little to slow down the Longhorns as they took three consecutive rallies to put the Huskers in a seven-point hole at 20-13.

Nebraska did not go away without a fight as Werth put away three kills during a 6-1 run that got the Huskers back within two at 21-19, resulting in a Texas timeout. Delano and Werth combined for a block out of the break to get Nebraska within one, but once again Texas had an answer with back-to-back kills from Faucette to push the Longhorn lead to three at 23-20.

The Huskers took the next two to again cut the Texas lead to one, 23-22, before a kill from Faucette put the Longhorns at match point 24-22. Licht and Mueller answered with back-to-back kills to tie the set but it was not enough as the Longhorns took three of the final four rallies to hand the Huskers their first loss of the conference season with a 27-25 win.

The Huskers will now complete their season series with the Iowa State Cyclones on Saturday night with a 7:30 p.m. match at the NU Coliseum. The match will be shown statewide on NET and a free video stream will also be available for free on Huskers.com. Fans can also listen to all of the action with John Baylor and Diane Mendenhall on the 25-station Husker Sports Network, including B107.3 FM in Lincoln and Twister 93.3 FM in Omaha. Fans outside the network will be able to listen to a live audio feed for free on Huskers.com.