Texas A&M snaps NU volleyball's 19-game streak

The streak has been broken.

The No. 6 ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers loss in four sets to the Texas A&M Aggies for the first since 1998 on Wednesday night.
The loss also marks the first time Nebraska has dropped a match to the Aggies in 19 contests, and the first time coach John Cook has lost to A&M in his ten-year tenure at Nebraska.
A combined 11 service errors, including five in the opening set, were a major factor in the loss, which dropped NU to 9-3 overall and 2-1 in the Big 12 Conference.
"Its serving and passing," Cook said. "We were bad serving and horrible passing."
Set one was a true nail-bitter. After Nebraska opened up with a 4-0 lead, neither team ever lead by more than three. The set featured 13 tied points and three lead changes. The Huskers committed five service errors in the first set and A&M went on for the 28-26 victory.
"There are only so many options you can do," Cook said. "It's not like you can call a thirty minute timeout and put in a new system."

Set two was a completely different story for the Nebraska squad.

The Huskers jumped out early with a 9-2 lead after junior co-captain Sydney Anderson served nine consecutive points. The Aggies never came within six points of Nebraska as the Huskers rolled to an easy 25-17 victory in set two. NU's Lindsey Licht was a pivotal factor in the NU set win and had nine kills on 15 swings after two sets.
"We came out strong and just kept building off it," NU junior Tara Mueller said. "There was something we did in that game that we just couldn't get to again."

Mueller led the attack for Nebraska with a match-high 21 kills.

Nebraska started off the third set keeping right in stride with A&M. But things began to unravel for NU after a Megan Pendergast service error, the third of the set for the Huskers. Nebraska then pulled as close as three points before the Aggies eventually took the 25-19 victory.

In the fourth and final match, A&M jumped ahead early and never looked back.
The Aggies began the match with a 9-2 lead and played tight defense, holding the Huskers to only .211 hitting - their lowest percentage of the night. NU pulled as close as 17-20 after back-to-back Mueller kills, but could not sustain a comeback and lost 25-19.
"At times, we definitely fought as a team," Mueller said. "We started to come out and fight toward the end of the match, but it was obviously too late."

Nebraska will have a chance to re-assert itself as national contenders when they take on No. 2 ranked Texas at home Saturday.

"We're going to learn from this match, we're going to continue to stay on our schedule and prepare for Texas on Saturday and get ready for that big match," Mueller said.