A Fired Up Murray Leads Huskers to a Sweep Over Penn State

Harper Murray played mad and took it out on Penn State. 

Nebraska’s senior outside hitter played with a little more fire than usual and finished with a team-high 13 kills while hitting .400. 

The top-ranked Huskers fed off her energy, posted a .419 hitting percentage, and swept No. 16 Penn State 25-20, 25-17, 25-18 Thursday evening at Rec Hall. 

“Let’s get her ticked off and some attitude for the next match,” NU coach Dani Busboom Kelly said during her post-match radio interview. “She got more out-of-system (attacks) than in-system, and she did not back down.”

Murray swung hard against the Penn State block, which recorded only two stuffs all game, and got back-to-back kills on successful challenges in the third set. She also added four blocks, two aces and three digs in the winning effort. 

During an interview on BTN, Murray said sophomore opposite Ryan Hunter inspired her when she ignited the Huskers against North Carolina last week, recording six kills on seven swings during the final two sets. 

“My coaches say I play better when I’m mad, so maybe I was a little mad,” Murray said during an interview on BTN. “It fires the team up… We play better like that. So that’s where I came from. It’s always fun to play in this kind of environment.”

The Huskers (14-0, 3-0) started quickly, racing to a 7-1 lead. Penn State committed four hitting errors on its first nine swings, including two NU blocks. Eventually, the Nittany Lions settled in and former Husker Whitney Lauenstein started firing away. She recorded half of her 12 kills in the opening set. 

Penn State closed to 20-19 late in the set, but the Huskers responded by winning five of the final six points, including aces from Laney Choboy and Murray. 

Nebraska received a scare midway through the set when setter Bergen Reilly landed on Emmi Sellman’s foot coming down on a block, but she shook off NU trainer Jolene Emricson and remained in the match. 

“She’ll probably be a little bit sore tomorrow, but luckily she popped right back up,” Busboom Kelly said. “I thought we got rattled a little bit by that, but luckily we’re able to weather that as well.”

Penn State (9-4, 1-2) kept closer in both the second and third sets, but the Huskers went on runs just before the media timeout to take control. 

In the second set, the Nittany Lions tied the score at 10-all, but NU won six of the next seven rallies. At 12-all in the third, the Huskers scored four consecutive points to go up for good. 

Penn State mounted a late challenge in the third set, appearing to cut the deficit to 18-17. However, NU challenged a hitting error on Murray and got the reversal. The same outcome happened on the next play as NU went up 20-16. 

After a Kennedy Martin kill, the Huskers pulled away with four straight kills before Hunter entered the match and ended the match with a kill on her only swing of the day. 

Martin finished with 17 kills on 40 attacks, but no one else finished with more than three kills for PSU. The Nittany Lions finished with a .230 hitting percentage, the highest by any NU opponent this season, but they had little answer for the Huskers’ attack. 

Andi Jackson finished with 11 kills on 16 swings to go with seven blocks. Teraya Sigler returned to full action and added eight kills at a .500 clip. Virginia Adriano and Manaia Ogbechie both posted hitting percentages above .300 with six kills. 

Reilly tallied 34 assists with 16 digs to lead the defense. Libero Olivia Mauch had eight digs, three assists and an ace, while Laney Choboy recorded six digs, four assists and two aces. 

Busboom Kelly said the Huskers didn’t play their best volleyball, even given their gaudy hitting percentage, but found a way to string points together. 

“We won with some grit tonight. Penn State gave us almost all they had, and we handled it really well,” she said. “When we started to feel like we were getting backed into a corner, we took big rips, and again, just played with a lot of grit tonight.”

With the win, Busboom Kelly earned her 250th career victory and became the fourth-fastest coach to reach that milestone. She reached No. 250 in her 295th career match and only trails BYU’s Heather Olmstead (292 matches), Hawaii’s Dave Shoji (293 matches) and UCLA’s Andy Banachowski (293 matches).

Busboom Kelly said she wasn’t aware she had reached the milestone, but was honored to reach the wins mark.  

“I’ve had a lot of amazing players and staff,” she said. “It’s definitely a group win.”