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Lincoln - The fifth-ranked Nebraska volleyball team swept Grand Canyon (25-21, 25-8, 25-11) in the first of its two matches on Saturday at the Nebraska Invitational.
The Huskers improved to 2-0 for the first time since 2012, while Grand Canyon fell to 0-2. The victory was head coach John Cook's 599th of his career, and he will go for win No. 600 against Pittsburgh (2-0) in the tournament finale at 7 p.m. Like Nebraska, the Panthers have swept both Grand Canyon and Tulsa this weekend.
Kelsey Fien had 14 kills and hit .406 to lead the Big Red. Four Huskers hit at least .400 with double-digit attacks, and Nebraska had just two errors over the final two sets with a perfect sideout percentage in both games. Mikaela Foecke had eight kills and hit .538, Meghan Haggerty had eight kills and hit .500, and Kadie Rolfzen had eight kills while hitting .467. Kelly Hunter had 37 assists, and Justine Wong-Orantes had 13 digs, including a highlight-reel bump set to Fien in the third set. Kenzie Maloney added 11 digs, as did Olivia Boender, who had 10 of them in the third set alone.
Nebraska bolted to a 12-3 lead in the first set. Grand Canyon cut it to 15-10 before the Huskers pulled away to an 18-10 lead after kills by Amber Rolfzen and Foecke around an Annika Albrecht ace. The Lopes would not go away, though, and climbed back to within 23-21 after a 5-0 run. Fien hammered a kill off a block to end the rally and the Huskers won 25-21 after GCU hit wide.
Fien opened the next set with three of her nine second-set kills, and Kadie Rolfzen added another for a 4-0 Husker start. Nebraska had nine kills on its first 13 attacks for a .692 hitting percentage to lead 10-2. Nebraska went up 20-5 with a run of six straight kills, three by Fien and two by Haggerty. Fien's ninth kill of the set made it 23-8, and the Huskers closed out the 25-8 win on Olivia Boender's first career kill. The Huskers had 21 kills on 34 attacks with just one error for a .588 hitting percentage. NU's 21 kills equaled the most in a set all of last season, which the Big Red accomplished twice but never with as few as one error.
The Huskers gained separation from a 10-8 lead in set three with a 7-1 run to go up 17-9. Cecilia Hall had two kills and a block with Foecke in that stretch. Nebraska pulled away down the stretch for a 25-11 margin to finish out the sweep.