Nebraska sweeps Kansas 3-0

By Zach Getz

Monday, November 23, 2009

Kansas will have to wait until next season to take another shot at getting its first victory against Nebraska. Kansas was swept 3-0 by Nebraska Saturday, and now has a 0-84-1 all-time record against the team.

Coach Ray Bechard said that Nebraska could possibly make it to the NCAA Volleyball Tournament Final Four again and that when a team as good as Nebraska pushes, you need to push back.

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Kansas Volleyball vs. Nebraska

Kansas played Nebraska Saturday at the Horseji Family Athletics Center.

“Their serving took us out of anything we wanted to get going,” Bechard said. “When you don’t get the opportunity to create some offensive opportunities for yourself, a match like that begins to deteriorate really quickly, and that is what we saw.”

Kansas was unable to disrupt Nebraska’s tempo, which was one of its game plans, Bechard said.

“We didn’t control some little things that we obviously talked about,” Bechard said. “When you’re serving the ball and passing the ball, you have complete control over that, and we weren’t effective enough in those two phases to have success today.”

Nebraska had an impressive .433 hitting percentage while Kansas’ percentage was just .082. Nebraska almost doubled Kansas’ kills, earning 50 compared with Kansas’ 26. Sophomore outside hitter Allison Mayfield led Kansas with 10 kills while senior libero Melissa Grieb led the team with six digs.

Senior middle blocker Paige Mazour, Nebraska native, said she wanted the victory badly for herself and for her teammates.

“It would’ve meant the world to me,” Mazour said. “And not just for myself, but for the team. This would’ve been a big ranked-team win. Everything about it was the perfect situation for us right now.”

Kansas’ post-season hopes are cloudier now with only two games left. A victory against Nebraska would’ve gone a long way in helping Kansas make the NCAA Volleyball Tournament, Grieb said.

“The situation that we put ourselves in with winning Baylor last week — if we would’ve won this game, it probably would’ve extended our season,” she said.

Kansas kept the first set close and Nebraska could never build a comfortable lead until Nebraska went on an 11-2 run to finish it. Kansas tallied only six kills in the set and had seven errors, leading to a negative hitting percentage for the set, which it lost 25-15.

Nebraska quickly came out and took a 10-2 lead in the second set. Things didn’t get much better as Nebraska routed Kansas 25-12. Kansas again had seven errors for the set to go along with its seven kills, leading to a .000 hitting percentage.

Kansas and Nebraska went back and forth through the beginning of the third set, tying it up nine times throughout. After Kansas was up 14-12, Nebraska went on a 9-1 run to take a strong lead and Nebraska eventually won the set 25-18.

Kansas fell to 15-13, 7-11 in conference play, while Nebraska improved to 21-6, 14-4 in conference play. Kansas plays its last home game Tuesday against Texas Tech and finishes the season at No. 2 Texas.

— Edited by Amanda Thompson

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