Husker volleyball overcomes slow start, beats No. 24 Ohio State

It's hard to match the feeling of upsetting a four-time defending national champion.

Nebraska volleyball had that challenge Saturday night against No. 24 Ohio State in its second Big Ten match.

Nebraska struggled in the first two sets, winning the first 25-23 and losing the second 23-25. But during the final two sets the Huskers came alive, winning 25-11 and 25-16.

Despite the efforts by NU's coaching staff, Nebraska wasn't ready to play volleyball at the beginning of the match. However, by the end coach John Cook felt like NU got past the hangover that comes from beating a top-five team in Penn State.

"We looked like we were molasses," Cook said. "But I think they came back really well."

In the third set, Nebraska came out firing on all cylinders. The Huskers had recovered from the slow start, they hit .600, had no errors and 12 kills. Their defense also came through as they held the Buckeyes to a -.100 hitting percentage.

"We were able to turn it up a notch, and Ohio State couldn't stay with us," Cook said.

Hannah Werth said she recognized that the Penn State victory raised expectations for NU coming into a match that featured a top-25 opponent.

After the first two sets, Werth and her teammates settled into their roles and started looking at the task at hand.

Werth answered the call to perform, with 13 kills on only 23 attacks, but she credits the game to how focused NU was coming out of the locker room after the second set.

"I think we did a great job of just coming out and being relaxed and confident," Werth said. "It was a lot different feeling in game three and four than it was in one and two. I think we owe that to just kinda calming down and trusting one another."

Going into the locker room after a rough two sets, it's expected for coaches to give fire and brimstone speeches to get their teams riled for the challenges ahead.

But Cook didn't need to do that.

"I didn't really tell them anything to fire them up," Cook said. "I just talked about what we needed to do passing. We talked about a couple adjustments and I told them I was going to put (Jordan Wilberger) in for Hayley (Thramer).

"And we needed to impose our will on them ... and they did a nice job of that."

All season Nebraska has looked solid at the middle blocker position. Wilberger has four starts and Thramer has five.

Neither one was able to break .200 on the night, though. Wilberger hit .167 while Thramer hit -.143.

In the first two sets Thramer was seeing a majority of the playing time, but she didn't make an appearance in the third and fourth, when Cook chose Wilberger.

While the rest of the team was playing well in his opinion, those two underperformed, but he sees that those problems can be solved.

"We had four (hitters) going," Cook said. "But between (Wilberger) and Hayley they didn't do much so we're going to have to get that fixed."

The victory puts Nebraska at 2-0 in Big Ten play, and with wins against two top-25 opponents, the inaugural Big Ten week didn't disappoint Cook.

"It was exactly what I thought it would be," he said. "It's gonna be battles every night."

robbykorth@

dailynebraskan.com