After a solid first set, the Huskers struggle to terminate over the final two sets but hold CU to a negative hitting percentage
Nebraska took the court without the Big Ten Player of the Week against a ranked opponent Wednesday night.
No problem for the top-ranked Huskers.
Sophomore middle blocker Kenna Cogill learned she would replace Manaia Ogbechie, who was out with an illness, shortly before the match against No. 20 Creighton and put up a career night with eight kills on 11 errorless swings.
Nebraska earned a 25-13, 25-15, 25-19 win over its in-state rival in front of a school-record home indoor crowd of 15,405 at Pinnacle Bank Arena. The old mark came in 2008, when 13,870 watched NU face UCLA at the Devaney Center.
The last time Cogill played at Pinnacle Bank Arena for a regular-season match was the AVCA First Serve Showcase last year. She stood on the sidelines for the entire match as she was starting her redshirt year.
“I remember looking around and I was like, ‘One day, I’m going to go out and I’m gonna play here, and it’s gonna be amazing,’” she said. “Thinking back on that, today, it was just super cool.”
Fellow middle blocker Andi Jackson also had a stellar outing, leading the Huskers with nine kills on a .571 hitting percentage. She said she was impressed by how Cogill responded to a difficult situation of learning she would start shortly before the match and not having time to prepare mentally.
“Kenna shows up every day at practice, ready to go,” Jackson said. “She’s always been a huge part of the success on this team. She’s pushing us every single day in practice, and I think that really translated today on the court.”
Nebraska's Kenna Cogill goes up for a joust with Creighton's Ashlyn Paymal in the third set. Cogill finished with a career-best eight kills on a .727 hitting percentage with two blocks. Despite strong play from the middle blockers, NU’s offense struggled overall, as its pin hitters combined for .042 with 23 kills and 20 hitting errors. The Huskers finished with a .202 hitting percentage, which was their lowest since hitting .154 against Penn State in the 2024 regular season.
“That was not a pretty volleyball match,” NU coach Dani Busboom Kelly said. “We can be happy. That’s a great win for us. Obviously, it’s a top 20 team and an in-state rival, but we got to continue to be hungry and we got to want more from ourselves.”
The Huskers started the match playing some of their best volleyball of the season and posted a .444 hitting percentage in the first set as it ran away from the Bluejays, who fell to 5-5 on the year.
Murray started well with four kills on seven swings and just one error in the first set, but couldn’t maintain that efficiency. She finished with eight kills and nine errors for a -.033 hitting percentage, the first time in her career she finished hitting negative.
The senior outside hitter did contribute three aces, three blocks and six digs in the win. Busboom Kelly said she would like to see more consistency from Murray’s attacks.
“Harper is doing a great job of just being a true six-rotation outside,” she said. “She got a couple good nice blocks, served some aces, passed well, played great backcourt defense, and she got some key kills when we needed them on some big out-of-system swings. It’s just like stringing those together, and our offensive numbers will be fine. But I love what she’s doing in every other facet of her game.”
Nebraska's Teraya Sigler goes up for kill against Creighton Wednesday night. The sophomore outside hitter finished with six kills and five errors as NU's pin hitters struggled to terminate at a high clip. Photo courtesy Nebraska AthleticsAdriano had the best night from the pin hitters, posting eight kills. After hitting .000 for the first two sets, the 6-foot-5 Italian recorded five kills in the final frame on nine attacks. Sigler also finished in the black with six kills and five errors.
Despite the offensive woes, Nebraska’s defense and serving kept Creighton off-kilter all night. The closest CU kept any set was 12-12 in the second set, but the Huskers responded by winning 13 of the next 16 points.
The Bluejays hit -.033 with 17 kills and 20 errors on 91 attacks. The last time they posted a negative hitting percentage (-.068) was September 2002, also against Nebraska, a season before Kirsten Bernthal Booth took over the program.
Only three of the eight CU hitters posted a positive hitting percentage, led by Ashlyn Paymal, who finished with five kills at a .167 clip.
“We’re just not putting balls away,” Creighton coach Brian Rosen said. “We tipped way too much tonight, and you can’t do that against a team like Nebraska. They’re just too scrappy, and you have to go out swinging.”
Nebraska finished with 26 more digs than Creighton (47-21), led by 11 digs from Teraya Sigler, Bergen Reilly and Olivia Mauch. Jackson led the front-row defense with six blocks.
Despite the win and their seventh sweep in eight matches, Busboom Kelly said the Huskers haven’t played their best volleyball yet this season.
Busboom Kelly said she is hopeful Ogbechie’s illness is short-term. She also said Laney Choboy, who left the match after colliding with Murray while trying to keep a play alive, should be fine. Even though they are about a quarter of the way through the season, they are still working on fine-tuning aspects of their game like out-of-system attacking and transition offense.
“It’s definitely exciting as a coach to know that you can play at a high level,” she said. “What’s also exciting is one part of our game might be great, one might not be great, but we can still win. Like tonight, our defense was great. Our offense wasn’t that great throughout the entire match, but you didn’t notice it because our defense was playing so well.”
Said Jackson: “I don't even think we're close to our ceiling, which is very awesome that we're in that position. There's still a ton of room for improvement.”
