Nebraska Survives Battle with Creighton in Five Sets

OMAHA—With the match hanging in the balance, fans wearing both red and blue rose to their feet and chanted their allegiance.

Several times during the fourth and fifth sets, the fans filled the arena with duelling “Let’s go Jays” and “Go Big Red” chants, creating a wall of noise.

Nebraska (9-0) answered the call in the fifth set as it escaped with a 25-17, 21-25, 25-18, 24-26, 15-9 victory Tuesday night in front of a record crowd at the CHI Health Center.

Nebraska players celebrate a point against No. 18 Creighton. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Creighton and Nebraska set a new attendance record with 17,675 fans at the CHI Health Center, the largest indoor crowd for a regular-season match. The previous record of 17,037 was set in 2023 when Marquette hosted Wisconsin at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.

NU junior setter Bergen Reilly said she had to rely on her training in the late stages of the match because she couldn’t hear her teammates talk on the court. The atmosphere is just part of what makes the two in-state rivalries special, she said, no matter when or where they play.

“It’s awesome that the people of Nebraska showed out. I had no doubt that they would,” Reilly said. “Obviously, getting a win makes it a little sweeter. It’ll be a good bus ride home.”

The previous largest crowd to watch a home Creighton match (and Nebraska indoors) came on Sept. 7, 2022, when 15,797 fans saw the Huskers win in five sets at CHI as Whitney Lauenstein put up 25 kills. The Huskers hold the all-time attendance record of 92,003 for their match outdoors at Memorial Stadium.

Tuesday’s match was the 11th-largest crowd to watch a college volleyball match, regardless of timing and location. Nebraska has been part of 13 of the 14 biggest attendance marks, missing only No. 2 from last year’s NCAA championship match.

On the court, the top-ranked Huskers delivered in clutch moments in the fifth set as they improved to 24-0 all-time against the Bluejays. Creighton coach Brian Rosen said he was impressed with Nebraska. The Bluejays have played then-No. 2 Penn State, current No. 2 Texas and No. 3 Louisville this season.

“I think they are the true No. 1 team in the country right now,” he said.

After an ace serve from Creighton setter Anna Maeder to start the match, the teams traded 13 sideouts until Andi Jackson smashed home an overpass on an Olivia Mauch serve. NU took control of the first set by winning seven of nine rallies to break a 10-all tie into a 17-12 advantage. Jackson led the charge with five kills on eight swings and recorded an ace to end the set.

Creighton middle blocker Kiara Reinhardt tips a shot past Nebraska middle blocker Andi Jackson and setter Bergen Reilly. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Creighton (5-5) started the second set by winning the first three points on a net violation and two blocks. The Bluejays extended their lead to as many as 19-13 before NU started to chip away. A Harper Murray block closed it to 22-21, but the Huskers missed their serve, gave up an ace to Destiny Ndam-Simpson, and then committed a hitting error.

In the third set, Virginia Adriano took over NU. The freshman opposite recorded seven kills on seven attacks and added an ace during a 9-1 run that put the Huskers up 19-9. Adriano entered the match averaging 1.56 kills per set on a .133 hitting percentage.

Adriano finished the match with a career-high 13 kills at a .400 clip and two aces. Her previous best outing was eight kills against Grand Canyon on Saturday.

“I thought it was an awesome, huge game for Virginia,” NU coach Dani Busboom Kelly said. “We really needed that as a team, and her personally, to have a great game in a big environment where she has to take over the game, or we might lose that.”

The Turin, Italy native said she was anxious at times to play in front of such a large crowd, but she drew strength from the belief her teammates had in her to deliver in the crucial moments.

“Stress is high in these kinds of games,” she said. “As we said in one of the timeouts, I tried to rely on the teammates that have confidence in that moment, if you don’t have it right now in that moment. I tried to do that, and it helped.”

The Bluejays showed their mettle in the fourth set as they fought back from 15-11 and 22-20 deficits to rally. Of Creighton’s final six points, four came on NU errors, before Ava Martin ended it with a kill. Martin finished the match with 16 kills while Kiara Reinhardt added 11 kills and six blocks.

Creighton used service pressure to force errors, as it recorded seven aces while committing 15 errors. As a team, the Bluejays hit .173, the highest by a Nebraska opponent this season, and outblocked the Huskers 8-7.

“I thought we had a good offensive night against a really tough defense,” Rosen said. “I’m proud of the fight, proud of the way that we showed Creighton volleyball on a national stage and continue to prove to each other that we belong here, that we’re just as good as anyone.”

Creighton and Nebraska set a new attendance record with 17,675 fans at the CHI Health Center. — Creighton and Nebraska set a new attendance record with 17,675 fans at the CHI Health Center, the largest indoor crowd for a regular-season game. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

In the fifth set, Nebraska went away from Busboom Kelly’s mantra of “rip it, don’t tip it” to find success. With CU leading 4-3, the Huskers won the next four points, the first two on tips from Murray, who finished with a match-high 17 kills, before another tip forced Creighton out of system and into a hitting error. Then Andi Jackson smashed home a kill to put NU up 7-4.

After Creighton closed to 10-8, Olivia Mauch made a play to show why she earned the libero jersey. After the Huskers shanked the serve of Saige Damrow, Mauch laid out to make a one-arm save that kept the ball alive. Rebekah Allick rejected a Creighton attack, and its next swing went into the net to give NU the point. The Huskers won the following three points to pull away before Allick ended the match with another kill on a tip.

Jackson finished with 13 kills at a .400 clip while Allick added seven kills and two blocks.

“You could tell early on that Creighton was not going to let our middles beat them,” Busboom Kelly said. “We went away from them, even though that’s the one thing that’s made us great all year. They were still on Bekka, but it opened up those tips for her to strategically place them. I thought she did a great job of being smart.”

Taylor Landfair chipped in 12 kills for the Huskers while Reilly tallied 43 assists and 19 digs to go with four kills. Mauch finished with 16 digs and an ace.

After earning the win, Busboom Kelly said she was glad to be part of the Nebraska-Creighton rivalry again. While she watched some of the most recent matches on television, the match lived up to the hype, and both teams had to scrap to earn their points.

“It definitely met my expectations from a game and the crowd, and how into it people were,” she said. “That’s what makes rivalry games so fun — anything can happen. It is a lot of emotions. I know there’s a lot of Nebraska fans, but there are tons of Creighton fans, too. When I left, the last game we played in here was probably 90 percent Nebraska fans. It’s a testament to Creighton and how much their program’s grown.”

More From Nebraska On SI

Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI, subscribing to HuskerMax on YouTube, and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.