Nebraska volleyball rolls No. 5 seeded Georgia Tech to advance to Regional Final

Nebraska volleyball swept No. 5 seed Georgia Tech 25-11, 25-16, 25-21 on Thursday afternoon to reach the Regional Final for the 32nd time in program history.

Despite the 1:00 p.m. first serve, head coach John Cook’s squad brought the heat and burst out to 10-3 and 6-1 leads in the first and second sets. Four Nebraska attackers finished with five or more kills led by outsides Merritt Beason and Ally Batenhorst who each reached double digits with 11 and 10 kills respectively. Beason paced all attackers in kills and had a match-high .435 attack percentage.

The Yellow Jackets’ 28 attack errors was another key storyline. As a team, Georgia Tech averaged 4.89 attack errors per set and 18.4 per match entering the Regional Semifinal. Thursday’s match marked the 12th time this season the Yellow Jackets had surpassed 28 attack errors in a match and tied the season high in a five-set battle with Pitt. The Huskers forced manufactured 11 of those errors with their block.

Of Georgia Tech’s 11 other matches with 20 or more errors, only one lasted three sets.

The Huskers advance to a date with either No. 3 Arkansas or No. 2 Kentucky on Saturday night at 5:00 p.m. CST in the Bob Devaney Sports Center. Here’s a quick recap of the Huskers’ sweep of the Yellow Jackets in the Sweet 16.

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Nebraska capitalized on Georgia Tech errors in the first

Nebraska opened the first set on a tear that claimed 10 of the match’s first 13 rallies. Batenhorst established herself early with four quick kills but Georgia Tech’s six attack errors loomed large as the Huskers built a 13-6 advantage and forced a Yellow Jacket timeout. Nebraska won four of the next six rallies using kills from three different attackers to stretch its lead to 17-8.

The Huskers dominated the remainder of the first closing the set on a 4-0 run. Georgia Tech’s error issues persisted throughout the match’s first game. In total, the Yellow Jackets tallied 10 attack errors and a critical service error late in the set that came on a foot fault. Of Nebraska’s final eight points, five were off Georgia Tech errors including the final four points of the set.

Batenhorst’s four kills led all attackers after the first set while Lexi Rodriguez posted seven digs. Nebraska hit .281 and simultaneously held the Yellow Jackets to a -.111 hitting percentage.

Balanced attack and block lead the Huskers to 2-0 lead

Nebraska used another fast start to grab an initial hold on the second. But, Georgia Tech countered the Huskers’ 6-1 opening salvo with a 4-1 rally to make it a 7-5 Nebraska lead. A pair of service errors prevented the Huskers from separating and a 3-0 Yellow Jacket run brought the No. 5 seed within 14-12.

Georgia Tech did not draw any closer for the remainder of the set. Nebraska claimed the Yellow Jackets’ first timeout when it pulled ahead 20-14 and cruised to a 25-16 second-set victory.

Setter Bergen Reilly kept all aspects of the Huskers’ attack involved in the second. Batenhorst, Bekka Allick, Harper Murray, Beason and Andi Jackson all pounded multiple kills to the floor in the set. Each of the five attackers had at least four kills for the match while Reilly brought her assist total to 20.

Meanwhile, Georgia Tech added 10 more attack errors in the second and reached 21 errors in the match. Nebraska created the majority of the errors with six blocks after only one stop at the net in the first. The Yellow Jackets remained in the negative hitting -.043 to Nebraska’s .370.

Late Nebraska push overcame the Yellow Jackets’ last gasp

Georgia Tech grabbed its first lead of the match by claiming the third set’s opening rally on a Otene kill. Much like in Nebraska’s previous match with Missouri, featured a much more competitive tone. The Huskers led without a serious challenge through the first two sets. In the third, there were 10 ties and five lead changes by the halfway point where Nebraska held a 15-14 edge on Beason’s eighth kill.

Soon after, Otene terminated her eighth ball to match Beason, even the score at 16-16 and pull Georgia Tech’s hitting percentage out of the negative for the first time since the early portions of the first set. An Otene service error marked the 15th tie of the set at 19-19 and sparked a 4-0 Husker run featuring two kills from Beason and another from Batenhorst.

Nebraska’s ensuing 24-19 lead was its largest of the set and was all the Huskers needed to grab a stranglehold on the final game of the match. Beason’s seventh kill of the third sealed the victory as Nebraska punched its ticket to the Elite Eight. For the match, the Huskers posted a .326 hitting percentage which is its best of the postseason.

Georgia Tech’s .019 mark in the same category is also the lowest a Nebraska opponent has managed since the tournament began.