Sheldon: 3 Quick Sideouts From Nebraska's Sweep of Michigan State

Huskers have to challenge themselves, Adriano's early swings bring confidence, could the Big Ten race be over by next weekend?

You'd be happy too if you hit better than .300 11 matches in a row. | Amarillo Mullen

Nebraska stayed perfect with yet another sweep, this time against Michigan State. Below are three quick sideouts after the match.

Nebraska has to invent its own adversity

Because, currently, its opponents aren’t giving them any.

Saturday, Michigan State became Nebraska’s 11th straight victim by way of sweep. In each of those matches, the Huskers have hit at least .300. 

The Huskers have won 34 consecutive sets, their longest streak since 2007. Within that streak, Nebraska has only allowed an opponent to even reach the 20-point mark five times. None of the Huskers’ last three opponents have reached 20, generally considered the mark of a competitive set.

Rebekah Allick had eight kills Saturday vs. Michigan State, seven of them coming in Game 2. | Amarillo Mullen

So, how do the Huskers prepare themselves to play in a pressure situation? Inevitably, Nebraska will need to execute at 23-22, either later in what seems like an inevitable march to the Big Ten title, or in December, where the team’s true self-imposed standard lies.

“We have really competitive practices,” Dani Busboom Kelly said. “We’re always mixing our teams up, making sure we’re creating different match-ups that could be similar to the game.”

She doesn’t need to remind players - especially Nebraska’s veterans - just how fragile success can be, either. 

Nebraska’s upperclassmen - Rebekah Allick, Bergen Reilly, Harper Murray, Andi Jackson, and Laney Choboy - each have reached the Final Four twice without coming home with an NCAA championship trophy.

Harper Murray and the rest of Nebraska's upperclassmen are driven by back-to-back season-ending losses in the Final Four. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

That helps keep the foot on the gas when you’re in the middle of lapping the rest of your conference.

“They’re pretty hungry, and I think they understand what is going to happen if they get complacent,” Busboom Kelly said, “and it’s not going to be good.”

A confident Virginia Adriano is a good Virginia Adriano

Nebraska’s 6-foot-5 Italian freshman is honest and introspective. Credit her for being vulnerable to a room full of strangers - and television cameras - about how tough she is on herself when she starts a match slow or goes through a hitting slump.

The Huskers are well served by getting Adriano some early success and riding her blossoming confidence throughout a match. Saturday, Nebraska’s first two points of the night came off Adriano’s right arm, on her way to seven kills on nine swings - a career-high .667 attack percentage.

Adriano's two early kills got her off to a confident start. | Amarillo Mullen

“I’m really working on not being too hard on myself because we have such a high standard that we say in the locker room that when we don’t play perfect, we think we’re playing very bad,” she said. “That is never true, but I’m the first one to do that.”

Adriano was all smiles at the end of Game 1. She put away her first four swings and finished the opening set with five kills, putting down two more in Game 2 before giving way to senior Allie Sczech, who played all of the third set.

Nebraska’s balance and the brevity of their matches keep any one player from putting up big offensive numbers. It’s been since the Big Ten opener against Michigan on Sept. 24 that a pin hitter other than Harper Murray has reached double-digit kills. 

Had she not been given the night off after the second set, Adriano seemed set to reach the mark against a Michigan State block that seemed worn down late in the match.

Nebraska could have the Big Ten title wrapped up by November

Worried about a jinx? Blame the math, aided by a Big Ten Conference that is lacking another dominant team in 2025.

Nebraska’s Halloween match-up at Wisconsin was circled before the season as one of the Big Ten’s marquee meetings and a pivotal match in the conference title race.

Andi Jackson (15) and Nebraska's defense will try to slow Wisconsin star Mimi Colyer on Halloween. | Amarillo Mullen

The Badgers already have two conference losses going into a Sunday match at Oregon, and if Wisconsin snaps the Huskers’ win streak next Friday, it will be neck-and-neck for the Big Ten crown.

However, a Husker win at the UW Fieldhouse - where NU won 3-0 last year - would essentially put the Big Ten trophy inside John Cook Arena with a full month left.

Wisconsin is good. Any team with a dynamo outside hitter like Mimi Colyer, who transferred in from Oregon after last season. But the Badgers are a bit of a one-trick pony, and figure to again be playing with back-up setter Addy Horner, who is filling in for the injured Charlie Fuerbringer.

After losing 10 straight to the Badgers from 2017-22, the Huskers were hung up on Wisconsin for a long time…until they weren’t. Now, can the Badgers get past the mental block of losing to Nebraska three times in 2024? 

The Huskers have been poised in road environments all season. If they can avoid a horror show in Madison, their treat will all-but-officially be a third straight Big Ten title.

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