Indiana Volleyball Shows Improvement in Second Loss to Nebraska

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — There were certain moments in the second and third sets Saturday night that Indiana could've let things get way out of hand against No. 5 Nebraska.

The Cornhuskers began playing like the fifth-best team in the country with seven returning players while Indiana looked like a team that started four freshmen and two sophomores.

But the Hoosiers were able to rally a bit and put some points on the board and some pressure on Nebraska. Despite a second-straight sweep to Nebraska, Indiana had plenty moments of fight.

"It's about resiliency," head coach Steve Aird said. "It's such a good conference that there's nowhere to hide."

There were a number of improvements Aird saw from the team between the Friday and Saturday matches.

The Hoosiers held one of Nebraska's best players, Lexi Sun, to under .200 hitting percentage.

"I was thrilled with where we played defensively," Aird said. "I still don't think we're anywhere close to where we need to be. But a huge difference with our performance between last night and tonight, just our commitment to run down balls, dig balls.

"Offensively, we've got a ways to go and everyone is battling things and we will keep looking at ways to be better offensively. You hold Nebraska to .228. They did whatever they wanted last night and tonight I thought we were a little better."

The Cornhuskers still did get the sweep (25-21, 25-16, 25-19) to drop Indiana to 0-2 on the season, but there were a lot of positives from the way the Hoosiers competed this weekend.

For setter Brooke Westbeld, it just felt great to be back out on the volleyball court for the first time in over a year.

"It felt pretty spectacular," Westbeld said. "We didn't win, but all I could think throughout the entire night was, 'gosh, I'm just so happy to here.' We did so many good things as a young team, so just thinking about that in our first weekend against Nebraska, we have so much potential."

Westbeld led the team with a total of 23 assists over both games this weekend.

Junior Breana Edwards, who had an off night on Friday, came back and was on point for Saturday's contest. Edwards led the team with 12 kills on Saturday.

"Last night (Friday) we had some players play well and some others not and tonight, I think that flipped," Aird said. "The goal is to find some consistency where everyone is doing things at a high level."

Despite leaving the weekend 0-2, the Hoosiers left Wilkinson Hall with their heads held high as there's a lot of volleyball left to be played this season.

Indiana will have a week to digest this opening weekend and get ready for its first road trip of the year as the Hoosiers head to Piscataway to play Rutgers Jan. 29-30.

"We had nine kids in the program that had never been a part of a Big Ten match," Aird said. "We have two matches. We have film. We have practice Monday to get back in the lab and get better."