Bruins End Huskers? Season

Lincoln ? Brittany Murphy had a team-high 16 kills, while No. 8 UCLA held Nebraska to a season-low .108 hitting percentage in a 20-30, 30-27, 30-21, 30-23 victory over the ninth-ranked Huskers Friday evening in front of 4,150 fans at the NU Coliseum.

With the win, the Bruins, who improved to 23-8 on the year, advance to face USC Saturday night at 7 p.m. (central). The Bruins have lost both of their previous meetings with the top-ranked Women of Troy, but UCLA is one of only five teams to take a game from USC this season. Earlier Friday night, USC swept 16th-seeded Texas A&M.

Murphy was one of four Bruins to finish in double figures in the win, as Brittany Ringel added 11 kills while Heather Cullen and Cira Wright chipped in 10 apiece. With the victory, the Bruins snapped a three-game losing streak to the Huskers dating back to the 1992 season.

Melissa Elmer and Jennifer Saleaumua led Nebraska with 14 and 13 kills, respectively, as the Huskers saw their season come to an end with a 28-5 record. Nebraska’s previous season low was a .131 effort against Missouri on Oct. 15.

In game one, Nebraska raced to a 15-5 lead as Anna Schrad, Jennifer Saleaumua and Elmer all produced easy kills. UCLA closed it to 15-7 after Krystal McFarland and Heather Cullen blocked Dani Mancuso and Cira Wright pounded a kill. But Elmer and Mancuso responded with kills, starting a stretch in which eight of the nine points were scored by Nebraska. The Huskers led, 23-11, after a kill by Schrad. UCLA cut the Huskers’ advantage to 27-20, but NU eventually took a 30-20, first-game win when Schrad and Elmer blocked Lyman. NU hit .208 in game one, but held UCLA to a -.104 mark, as three Bruins with six or more attempts hit negative.

It was all UCLA early in game two, and the Bruins led, 23-16, after a kill by Murphy. However, the Huskers scored 10 of the next 14 points and trailed 27-26 after Ally Rebholz drilled a kill. Wright responded with a kill, and Schrad produced a crosscourt strike. Leading 28-27, UCLA wrapped up a 30-27 win on back-to-back kills from Murphy and Cullen.

In game three, Nebraska trailed, 15-12, before Mancuso reeled off four straight to give the Huskers a one-point advantage. UCLA came back with a 5-0 run that included three NU errors. Mancuso cut the Bruins’ lead to 24-21 with a kill, but Nebraska did not score again. UCLA produced the final six points in the 30-21, third-game win, as the Huskers hit a dismal .021.

In game four, Nebraska led 15-13, but UCLA ran off six of the next seven points to take a 19-16 lead on a kill by Colby Lyman, forcing John Cook to take a timeout. The Huskers continued to dig themselves a hole, committing service errors to trail 21-16 before Dani Mancuso’s kill changed the tide. The Bruins continued to build the lead, taking a 29-21 advantage before a Saleaumua kill and an Elmer block put NU within 29-23. Murphy then ended the Huskers’ season with her 16th kill of the match for the final point.

While Nebraska’s season ended with a 28-5 mark, the Huskers will return five starters in 2004, losing only Schrad, middle blocker Sara Westling and libero Jenae Dowling.

Nebraska-UCLA Post-Match Notes
*- Nebraska has never lost consecutive postseason matches at home.
*- It is NU's earliest postseason exit since the 1999 regional semifinals
*- It is the first time Nebraska has lost a regional semifinal match in Lincoln.
*- Nebraska is 20-5 in NCAA Regional matches in Lincoln, with two of those losses coming in the past two seasons (NU fell to Hawaii in four games in the 2002 regional final). The Huskers other losses came in 1985, 1991, and 1994.
*- Nebraska has won the past three matches with UCLA, and has not lost to the Bruins since Nov. 14, 1992.
*- Nebraska owns a 56-20 all-time NCAA Tournament record.
*- Freshman setter Dani Busboom tallied a career-high 18 digs.
*- Nebraska’s .108 hitting percentage was its lowest of the season.

 

Post-Match Quotes: #8 UCLA 3, #9 Nebraska 1

 

Nebraska Head Coach John Cook

Opening Statement

It was a tough way to end the year. We didn’t play with our best effort. We made too many errors against a good team like UCLA. This team made a lot of improvements over the last six weeks, but it’s just a really tough way to go out. The crowd was great tonight. They were loud, and they tried to keep us in it. They get the game ball tonight.

 

On games two and three

You can’t give up runs of points like we did. Our servers got tentative, and we weren’t scoring. We were giving up runs and trying to get side outs. I thought that the key points in game three were when we let an easy ball drop and hit some balls out. We just made more mistakes tonight than UCLA.

 

Nebraska Sophomore Melissa Elmer

On the match

We came out in game one excited and pumped up. We lost that. We need to figure out a way to keep that the whole match. It was our biggest downfall (tonight). We need to stay pumped up the whole match.

 

On the second game

We came off a great first game, and we knew that they’d come back. We made a lot of mental errors and just started cruising.

 

Nebraska Senior Anna Schrad

On what the team talked about between games two and three

We talked about playing for each other and playing one point at a time. We needed to keep the energy up and it just wasn’t clicking for us tonight.

 

Nebraska Freshman Dani Busboom

On losing

Anytime you lose it’s tough. We need to play better. We came out strong in the first game. It’s the hardest loss to deal with.

 

UCLA Head Coach Andy Banachowski

Opening Statement

We really feel fortunate to get this win.  It was tough playing on Nebraska’s home court.  Their crowd was so encouraging, and Nebraska came out in game one on fire.  We came out nervous in game one, but we settled down and went on to play outstanding defense, which carried us through to win.

 

UCLA Junior Brittney Ringels

On games three and four:

We were stronger in games three and four, and we fell into our game.

 

UCLA Junior Chrissie Zartman

On game one:

I think we came out nervous then we told each other to have fun.  We knew after the first game that it was over, and we could start fresh.