On their longest road trip of the season, the Nebraska volleyball team swept Texas Tech Wednesday night in Lubbock. Aided by big performances from Hannah Werth and All-American Tara Mueller, the No. 8 Cornhuskers beat the Red Raiders 25-12, 25-20 and 25-20.
On the night, NU out-hit the last place Red Raiders .308-to-.093. Texas Tech hasn't won a match in Big 12 Conference play this year and has only taken one set from a league rival this season.
But NU coach John Cook was clearly not satisfied with what he called "sloppy" play following his team's three-set win.
"I thought we played a great first game and were sloppy from then on out," Cook said. "It's disappointing because we had such a good week of practice. We played one good game and thought we were good from then on out."
Powered by the aggressive play of Mueller, the Huskers jumped out early with a dominating 25-12 set one victory. Nebraska took a 10-4 lead and never looked back. Mueller posted a .566 hitting percentage on five kills. Werth also contributed with five kills of her own, and NU posted a .483 hitting percentage as a team in the set.
"We came out strong, and we played our game in the first game," Mueller said. "But then we started letting up, and we started making errors that we normally wouldn't. This past week, we have had really good practices, and it didn't show tonight what we have been doing in practice."
Set two was a different story for the Huskers. The conference's worst team made things interesting, holding the NU offense to only .208 hitting. The Huskers began to pull away with a 7-2 run after Texas Tech tied the game at 5-5. The Red Raiders then pulled back within one at 21-20 before the Huskers took the final four points of the set.
Despite the win, the Huskers were not content with their second-set play.
"I think it was just discipline," Mueller said. "There were net errors, and there were balls hit out that should have stayed in. Just those small things come down to discipline and things we work on every day."
Texas Tech jumped out to an early 4-1 lead in the third and final set, then again at 10-7. Two Werth kills put the Huskers back on top 12-10. Nebraska forged ahead with two five-point runs that gave the Huskers the 25-20 set-three victory.
With the daunting task of facing No. 2 Texas on Friday quickly approaching, Cook said he will be scrambling to clean up his team's sloppy play.
"At some point, this team is going to figure out how they want to play, what kind of team they want to be. Maybe that's Friday night, I don't know." Cook said. "Texas is a very good team, and I'm sure they'll be pumped up to play Nebraska. We're going to prepare like we always do and hope we get better."
jayb.sloan@dailynebraskan.com
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