With a chance to send one more message to the NCAA volleyball tournament selection committee before the end of the regular season, the Kansas Jayhawks were swept by No. 9 Nebraska in three sets Saturday at the Horejsi Family Athletics Center.
“Today was really disappointing,” said senior libero Melissa Grieb. “We felt like we had a chance to come in here and extend our season today. If we would’ve won this one, we probably would’ve extended our season, but Nebraska was good today.”
Just like Nebraska has been for the past several weeks — and decades. Despite being tagged with a ranking a few numbers higher than they’re used to seeing, the Cornhuskers jumped out early, trailed for a total of six points in the match and rocked the Jayhawks, 25-15, 25-12 and 25-18 to extend their school-record winning streak against Kansas to 84 straight matches.
The Cornhuskers now hold a 84-0-1 record against the Jayhawks since 1975 and, Saturday, they showed why.
“When a team like that pushes you, you have to shove back a little bit and we didn’t push back today,” KU coach Ray Bechard said. “They’re playing as well as anybody. That’s a team that has a chance to return to another final four.”
While it seemed as if Nebraska was able to go to just about any position on the floor to get its points, the Jayhawks struggled to put the ball down. Kansas combined for just 13 kills in the first two sets, and the Nebraska D threw up block after block that ate up KU’s swings.
Allison Mayfield was the only KU player to reach double-digits in kills (with 10) and the Cornhuskers, who had five players finish with seven or more kills, nearly doubled up the Jayhawks in that department, racking up a 50-26 advantage.
“They involved everybody today,” Bechard said. “And, their tempo that they play at, we didn’t disrupt. We talked about that all week, how we needed to disrupt their tempo by how we served the ball and how we played defensively and, once again, we didn’t push back when we needed to push back.”
The Huskers were at their best — and the Jayhawks at their worst — at closing time. KU trailed, 15-13, in the first set and was outscored, 10-2, down the stretch. In the second set, NU jumped out to a 20-7 lead and never looked back. And in the third, when KU actually led as late as 14-13, Nebraska again stepped up its play when it mattered most, outscoring KU, 12-4, to close out the match.
“They were ready to play and we just didn’t live up to our end of the bargain,” said KU senior Paige Mazour, who hails from Franklin, Neb.
The loss dropped KU to 15-13 overall and 7-11 in Big 12 play, while Nebraska improved to 21-6 and 14-4.
The Jayhawks will wrap up the regular season with a home match against Texas Tech on Tuesday and a road test at No. 2 Texas on Saturday. Tuesday’s meeting with the Red Raiders will mark the final home appearance in the careers of four KU seniors — Grieb, Mazour, Katie Martincich and Brittany Williams.
“That’s an important match to us,” Bechard said. “(A win) No. 1, assures us of a winning record, No. 2, of more conference wins and No. 3, it’s Senior Night for four pretty good Jayhawks.”
