MANHATTAN, Kan. - The No. 4 Nebraska volleyball team rolled on with its fifth straight sweep to start the season after a 25-21, 25-15, 25-19 win over Kansas State in front of a sold-out crowd of 3,044 at the new Morgan Family Arena.
The Huskers (5-0) hit .277 and held Kansas State to .056 hitting for the match. Merritt Beason had 10 kills and six blocks to lead the Big Red. Eight of her kills came in the first set. Andi Jackson also had 10 kills and hit .750 to go with five blocks.
Lindsay Krause added nine kills and four blocks, and Harper Murray had nine kills.
The Huskers finished with 12 blocks in the match. Bekka Allick had a team-high seven.
Bergen Reilly had 29 assists and 12 digs, and Lexi Rodriguez added 11 digs.
Nebraska had 42 kills to 31 for Kansas State. The Huskers also had advantages in digs (46-36) and blocks (12-7).
Aliyah Carter led Kansas State (4-1) with nine kills.
Set 1: Kansas State took an 11-9 lead, but a kill by Krause and back-to-back blocks by Krause and Jackson put the Huskers up 12-11. Jackson and Beason then made it three blocks in a row for a 13-11 Husker lead. Jackson terminated and Beason served an ace to put NU up 15-12 at the media timeout. The Huskers led 17-14, but two kills by Carter and an ace by Izzi Szulczewski tied the score at 17-17. Beason recorded two kills in a row to put NU back up 19-17. A pair of kills by Murray kept NU in front, 21-18, and the Huskers won a lengthy rally with a kill by Krause to take their biggest lead of the set, 22-18. Beason added two more kills - giving her eight for the set - to make it 24-20, and Krause finished it off at 25-21 with her fourth kill.
Set 2: A dump by Reilly and two kills by Murray sparked the Big Red to a 5-0 start. NU led 7-1, but K-State scored a 4-0 run to pull within 7-5. Beason and Allick ended the run with a block, and Krause hit off the block and down to make it 9-5 Huskers. Jackson had a solo block and a kill as the Huskers went up 13-9. Murray posted another kill, and Beason and Allick combined on a block that had NU back up by five, 15-10. Beason tacked on her 10th kill and teamed with Allick for another block, and the Huskers were back up by six, 17-11. Kansas State cut the lead in half with a 3-0 spurt, but Krause answered for the Big Red to start a 5-0 run that made it 22-14 Huskers. With Rodriguez serving, Jackson and Krause had kills during that stretch. The Huskers held on to win 25-15, holding K-State to -.121 hitting in the second set.
Set 3: Kansas State led throughout the early part of the set, going up 9-5 after back-to-back kills. Murray and Allick answered with kills to cut it to 9-7, but the Wildcats answered with a 3-0 run to build the lead to five, 12-7. Allick earned sideout with a kill, and Reilly served an ace before a block by Allick and Beason quickly trimmed the deficit to 12-10. The Wildcats then hit wide and called a timeout as the Huskers were suddenly within one, 12-11. NU evened the score at 13-13 after a pair of Wildcat errors and then took its first lead, 14-13, on a block by Allick and Krause. But K-State came right back with a 3-0 run to reclaim a 16-14 advantage. After a K-State service error, Krause killed a ball and Jackson sent an overpass down to the floor for a 17-16 Husker lead. A free ball led to another Krause kill and an 18-16 lead, and a K-State hitting error gave the Huskers a three-point edge, 19-16. The teams traded service errors before a kill by Murray made it 21-17 Huskers. Jackson put down back-to-back kills for a 23-18 Husker lead. Reilly and Jackson combined for a block for match point, and NU finished the job at 25-19 on Jackson's 10th kill.
Up Next: The Huskers return home to face Creighton on Wednesday at 7 p.m. on BTN.