Huskers Turn Away UC Davis, 3-0Huskers Turn Away UC Davis, 3-0
Volleyball

Huskers Turn Away UC Davis, 3-0

Lincoln - The fifth-ranked Nebraska volleyball team opened the Ameritas Players Challenge with a sweep of UC Davis, 25-17, 25-11, 25-17, on Friday night at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.

The Huskers (5-1) hit an efficient .438 and got a career-high 12 kills from freshman Mikaela Foecke. Amber Rolfzen, who missed the past two matches, returned to the lineup and added six kills and a season-best seven blocks. Kadie Rolfzen and Cecilia Hall each had eight kills and combined for 0 errors in 33 attacks. Kelsey Fien also had eight kills with just one error. Kelly Hunter organized the attack and finished with 36 assists and nine digs. 

UC Davis (3-5) got 13 kills from Allie Wegener. 

Foecke paced the Huskers in the first set as they went on an 11-3 run midway through the set to take an 18-10 lead. The West Point, Iowa native had six kills and hit .625 to lead NU to a .433 percentage as a team. 

NU picked up where it left off in the second set, taking a 12-3 lead as the blocking picked up. Amber Rolfzen had four of her blocks in the second set, and the Huskers hit a blistering .591 with 13 kills and no errors on 22 attacks. NU's defense was much better in the second set, as UC Davis hit just .091 after hitting .312 in set one.

Nebraska started slowly in the third set, while the Aggies reeled off five straight points to go up 10-8. But  the Huskers regrouped and went up 18-12 behind Annika Albrecht's serve and six straight kills by five different players. 

The Huskers play a pair of matches on Saturday to finish the Ameritas Players Challenge. At 10 a.m., Nebraska will battle South Florida. Then at 3:30 p.m., NU will face Georgia Tech. Both matches will be streamed with a HuskersNSide subscription, and one ticket is good for both matches.