No. 1 Huskers Handle No. 16 PSU at Rec Hall

No. 1 Nebraska went on the road and dominated No. 16 Penn State with a 25-20, 25-17, 25-18 win over the Nittany Lions at Rec Hall on Thursday night.

Nebraska (14-0, 3-0 Big Ten) hit at a pace of .419 and held Penn State (9-4, 1-2 Big Ten) to .230.

The Huskers extended their win streak in road and neutral-site matches to 21 matches, which is tied for 13th all-time in NCAA history and is the third-longest in program history.

With the sweep, head coach Dani Busboom Kelly picked up her 250th career win and became the fourth-fastest coach to reach 250 all-time Division I wins in women’s college volleyball history. Busboom Kelly recorded win no. 250 in her 295th career match, trailing only Heather Olmstead (292 matches), Dave Shoji (293 matches) and Andy Banachowski (293 matches).

Bergen Reilly recorded her 46th career double-double after posting 34 assists and 16 digs while adding three blocks. With 34 assists, Reilly climbed to third all-time in program history with 4,145 assists, surpassing assistant coach Kelly (Hunter) Natter. Reilly directed the NU offense that featured five Huskers hitting above .300 on the night.

Harper Murray had 13 kills on .400 hitting with four blocks, three digs and two aces. Andi Jackson posted 11 kills and hit a team-high .625 while leading the Husker defense with seven blocks.

Teraya Sigler tallied eight kills and five digs, followed by Virginia Adriano and Manaia Ogbechie with six kills each.

Nebraska had a 46-41 edge in kills, 40-35 advantage in digs and a dominant 10-3 margin in blocks over the Nittany Lions.

Set 1: Nebraska never trailed in the opening set, jumping out to a 7-1 lead behind a pair of blocks and three straight points on Laney Choboy’s serve to force an early PSU timeout. The Nittany Lions chipped away and cut NU’s lead to 19-18 after a kill from Kennedy Martin. Ogbechie answered with a kill to stop the run, and Jackson followed with her fourth kill of the frame before Choboy’s ace pushed the lead back to 22-19. Murray’s ace gave the Huskers set point at 24-20, and Sigler closed it out with a kill to end the set at 25-20.

Set 2: Penn State opened the second set with three straight points, but Nebraska rattled off four in a row after a pair of Jackson kills and block assists by Reilly and Jackson and Murray and Jackson to grab a 6-4 advantage. The two teams exchanged points through four ties before the Huskers broke away from a 10-10 deadlock on a 12-4 run, sparked by back-to-back kills from Ogbechie and Adriano and a PSU attack error. Following a kill from Sigler, Campbell Flynn served three consecutive points as kills by Sigler and Murray stretched the lead to 22-14, prompting a PSU timeout. Ogbechie’s kill led to set point at 24-17, and she teamed with Murray on a block to close it out at 25-17.

Set 3: Penn State grabbed an early 3-1 lead in the third frame, but Nebraska answered with four consecutive points with Choboy again on the service line. The Nittany Lions battled back to tie it at 12 before the Huskers pulled away with four straight points, as Murray served an ace and Jackson added a solo block ahead of the media timeout. Murray took over down the stretch with three kills in a four-point span to push the lead to 21-17. Olivia Mauch then served three straight points, capped by a kill from Adriano for set point at 24-17. Ryan Hunter closed out the sweep with a kill off a Reilly set for a 25-18 win.

No. 1 Nebraska wraps up its east coast trip with a matchup at Maryland on Saturday night. First serve between the Huskers and Terrapins is set for 6 p.m. CT on B1G+.