Huskers Hold Off Sooners

Lincoln - The No. 5 Nebraska volleyball team (25-2, 17-1) stayed perfect at home in 2010 with a 3-0 sweep (25-22, 25-23, 25-14) of the Oklahoma Sooners (19-9, 11-6). The Huskers are now 12-0 at home this season and haven't dropped a set at the NU Coliseum since Oct. 2 when they beat Texas, 3-1.

"The match went just like I thought it would tonight," Head Coach John Cook said. "Oklahoma played really well and we struggled a bit early but we found a way to win the first two sets."

The duo of Sydney Anderson (22) and Lauren Cook (18) combined for 40 assists, while five Huskers had five or more kills, including 10 from Brooke Delano as well as nine each from Lindsey Licht, Hannah Werth and Morgan Broekhuis. The Huskers also put away five aces, including two each from Cook and Tara Mueller.

"I thought our serve was the difference," Cook said. "We did a great job of controlling their defense."

Defensively for the Huskers Werth tallied a match-high 17 digs, one shy of her season high, and Kayla Banwarth added 10 digs. Delano led all players with four blocks, while the Huskers committed just one receiving error compared to the Sooners' five.

The Huskers and Sooners matched each other kill-for-kill to start the first set, as they traded the first eight rallies, before back-to-back OU errors gave Nebraska a 6-4 lead. After the teams swapped the next four rallies the Sooners put up a 5-1 run to take an 11-9 lead. Oklahoma quickly let the lead slip away as they committed three straight errors and Delano followed with a kill to swing the lead back in Nebraska's favor at 13-11.

Oklahoma would come back to get within one point of Nebraska on five occasions and even tied the set twice, but each time Huskers had an answer to push the Sooners back and eventually took the set 25-22. Werth held the NU defense together with 10 first-set digs while Anderson powered the offense with nine assists and Delano put away five kills.

The close play continued into the second set where the Sooners took the first two-point lead of the set, 7-5, following a 3-0 run. With Oklahoma still holding the lead at 9-8 the Huskers got a kill and block from Allison McNeal on consecutive rallies to spark a 7-2 run that put the Huskers up 15-11.

With it looking like the Huskers had the second set in the bag up 22-17 the Sooners made one last charge with a 5-1 run to cut the NU lead to one, 23-22. Licht followed with a kill to put NU at match point, but a Husker error on the following play let the Sooners get within one point once more. Oklahoma's comeback came to an end on the next rally as Jordan Wilberger secured a 25-23 win for the Huskers with her second kill of the set.

Nebraska took charge out of the gate in set three with wins in seven of the first nine rallies, including two aces from Cook and a set-opening ace from Mueller. Oklahoma was able to get the lead down to three, 9-6, but a block and two kills from Wilberger along with a kill from Broekhuis extended the Husker lead to 13-7, resulting in a timeout from the Sooners.

The break did little to slow down the Husker attack as Nebraska took the next three rallies to build a 16-7 lead before a NU error ended the run. Unlike the first two sets where the Sooners were able to make a late run, the Huskers kept Oklahoma at bay and ran away with the set, 25-14, to complete the sweep.

Nebraska will now have a bye on Saturday and will next be in action next Wednesday when they host the Baylor Bears at 7 p.m. It will be Senior Night at the NU Coliseum as the Huskers will honor Sydney Anderson, Lindsey Licht, Kayla Banwarth and Tara Mueller. There will be no TV coverage of the match, but it will be streamed online at Huskers.com. Fans can also listen to all of the action with John Baylor and Dianne 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 can find the audio stream for free on Huskers.com.