No. 1 Nebraska Battles to 3-1 Win Over Georgia Tech

No. 1 Nebraska battled to a 24-26, 25-17, 25-18, 25-12 win over Georgia Tech on Saturday afternoon at John Cook Arena at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.

After Georgia Tech (8-2) hit .370 and took the first set, Nebraska (7-0) held the Yellow Jackets to .027 the rest of the match, finishing with eight aces and eight blocks while hitting .324 overall.

Manaia Ogbechie tied her career-high 12 kills, her second straight outing of 10 or more, while also adding five blocks and hitting at a .526 pace. Skyler Pierce pitched in a career-high 10 kills while recording three digs and two blocks.

Bergen Reilly tallied her second double-double of the season, finishing with 41 assists and 13 digs. Olivia Mauch finished with 13 digs for the second consecutive match.

Set 1: Georgia Tech took a 9-7 lead on a service ace from Heloise Soares, but Nebraska battled back to tie the score at 11-11 on an Andi Jackson kill. After the Yellow Jackets used a 7-2 run to take an 18-13 lead and force a Husker timeout, Nebraska stormed back with a 7-1 run to tie at 20-20 on a GT attacking error. Another ace from the Yellow Jackets gave the visitors set point at 24-21, but Nebraska scored three straight to even the score and force extra points. However, a kill and block from the Yellow Jackets gave the visitors the slim 26-24 victory and a 1-0 lead in the match.

Set 2: Georgia Tech carried its momentum over from the first, grabbing a 5-0 lead as Nebraska burned a timeout. After the Yellow Jackets built a 10-4 lead, NU flipped the momentum with an 11-3 run, capped off by a Virginia Adriano kill, to lead 15-13 at the media timeout. A trio of Skyler Pierce kills helped the Huskers build a 21-15 advantage, and Georgia Tech scored just two points the rest of the way as NU evened the match at 1-1.

Set 3: Nebraska grabbed a commanding 7-2 lead to begin the third and extended the advantage to 15-6 on a kill from Murray. Georgia Tech rattled off five straight points to trim NU’s lead to 15-11, but the Huskers regained their footing as an ace from Reilly put the Big Red ahead 18-12. Nebraska cruised to a win in the fourth set, hitting .333 and holding Georgia Tech to .162 to take a 2-1 lead.

Set 4: After Georgia Tech took an 8-7 lead early in the fourth, Nebraska went on a dominant 15-1 run to take a 22-9 lead and control of the match. The Huskers closed the 3-1 win on a kill from Pierce, improving to 7-0. The Big Red hit .526 in the fourth set, finishing with 12 kills while holding the Yellow Jackets to -.080.

No. 1 Nebraska returns to action with a match against No. 13 Creighton on Wednesday, Sept. 16, at 6 p.m. inside a sold-out Pinnacle Bank Arena. The match will be televised on the Big Ten Network.