Nebraska volleyball handed Ohio State their first loss of the season and did so in dramatic fashion.
The 9-1 Nebraska Cornhuskers welcomed in the undefeated Ohio State Buckeyes to Lincoln for a Friday night matchup at the Devaney Center and what transpired was one heck of a match.
The Buckeyes proved they’re a force to be reckoned with, taking the first two sets against Nebraska and looking like they were on their way to a shocking sweep of the fourth-best team in the country. The Huskers looked frustrated in those first two sets and didn’t look like they were in sync at all while the Buckeyes were playing Nebraska’s own game against them.
It all changed in the third set, however, when the Huskers started to hit better and play a lot less sloppy while OSU was making more and more errors and not being as on point as they had been in the first two sets. Nebraska took set three and once they captured the fourth set, momentum was on their side 100%.
We don't know how to spell. But we know how to win. pic.twitter.com/1lawxS7Lnl
— Nebraska Volleyball (@HuskerVB) March 13, 2021
After trailing two sets to none, Nebraska volleyball ripped off three straight sets to complete the “reverse sweep” over a previously undefeated team. This was a classic Nebraska win. We’ve seen it time and time again and they’ve proven this year — even in such a weird season such as this one — that this is the same ol’ Nebraska volleyball team we’ve grown to know and love.
As for Ohio State, I was impressed with what I saw from them. They came out hot, firing on all cylinders and really using Nebraska’s own strategy against them. The Buckeyes hit .375 in the first set compared to the Huskers’ .206 and the majority of Nebraska’s points in that first set were courtesy of OSU errors. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been close.
There are things that Nebraska needs to work on ahead of Saturday’s rematch against Ohio State, but it’s hard to complain about this match. The Huskers were getting clobbered, but then regrouped, realized they were still in the game and came out swinging in the final three sets. They hit .353 compared to OSU’s .057 in the fourth set and that’s when you could clearly tell that momentum was on Nebraska’s side. Ohio State looked gassed by the time the fifth set rolled around.
I wouldn’t recommend that Nebraska continue to make a strategy out of going into fifth sets, but I was proud of how they bounced back in this one. It’d have been easy for them to have moped in the third set and conserve energy for Saturday’s match, but they fought hard and handed the Buckeyes their first loss of the season.
Go Big Red!