Huskers Finish Non-Conference Play with 3-1 Win at Iowa State

Ames, Iowa - The No. 4 Nebraska volleyball team wrapped up non-conference play with a 3-1 (25-23, 21-25, 25-23, 25-11) win at Iowa State in front of 3,810 fans at Hilton Coliseum on Saturday evening.

The Huskers improved to 9-1 with the win, their best start since the 2011 season. Iowa State fell to 7-4. 

Kadie Rolfzen led Nebraska with 14 kills, 17 digs and a career-best eight blocks. Kelly Hunter also narrowly missed a triple-double with 45 assists, a career-high 17 digs and seven kills. Mikaela Foecke had 13 kills, and Amber Rolfzen had nine kills and seven blocks. Cecilia Hall added nine kills, while Kelsey Fien had eight.

The Huskers had a season-high 12 blocks, with six of them coming in the dominant 25-11 fourth-set win. NU also had an 85-71 edge in digs with four players recording at least 15, as Justine Wong-Orantes had 17 and Annika Albrecht had 15. Wong-Orantes surpassed 1,000 career digs in the match, becoming the fastest player in Husker history to do so as she needed just 75 career matches.

Nebraska hit .226 for the match but held Iowa State to .147.  

Iowa State built a 14-12 lead in the first set, but the Huskers answered with an 8-3 spurt to go up 20-17. But three straight hitting errors tied it at 20-20. ISU served long out of the timeout and then was whistled for a bad set, followed by a Hall and Kadie Rolfzen block for a 23-20 Husker lead. ISU scored the next two to get within 23-22, but Kadie Rolfzen got a kill and Foecke ended the set with a kill to put the Big Red on top 25-23. NU had a 19-13 edge in digs in the set with nine different players recording at least one. Amber Rolfzen paced the Huskers at the start with five kills on six attacks. 

The Cyclones ran out to a 10-4 lead in the second set with a 6-0 run, as the Huskers opened the set with five errors in their first 10 attacks. ISU maintained its lead at 19-13, but the Huskers clawed back to within 21-19 before an ISU timeout. The Cyclones pulled away down the stretch though for the 25-21 win to even the match. 

Iowa State looked to strengthen its upset bid by taking a 14-12 lead in set three. But NU turned up its block with four in the next five rallies to key a 6-0 run that put NU ahead 18-14. Kadie and Amber Rolfzen were each involved in three of them. ISU answered with the next four points to tie it 18-18, but kills by Kadie Rolfzen and Hunter and an ISU hitting error made it 21-18 Huskers. ISU rallied to tie it 22-22, but Amber Rolfzen and Hunter came back with kills to give NU set point, and Fien capped it off at 25-23. 

The Huskers wasted no time in taking control of set four by jumping to a 9-0 lead, sparked by back-to-back Kadie Rolfzen kills and a solo stuff. After Iowa State finally got on the board, Nebraska made sure there was no comeback attempt, building the lead to 15-2 with efficient hitting and four blocks. NU finished off the road win, 25-11. 

The Huskers begin Big Ten action next week with a road match at Iowa on Wednesday at 7 p.m.