LAWRENCE, Kan. - After a five-set thriller against Texas A&M and a four-set loss to Colorado, Nebraska finally put an end to its road woes on Saturday.
The Huskers used a relentless offensive attack to sweep Kansas (25-21, 25-18, 25-12) in front of a packed Horejsi Family Athletics Center in Lawrence, Kan. NU was the first conference foe to sweep the Jayhawks at home all season.
Nebraska (25-1, 16-1 Big 12) got off to a slow start in the first set, but ended up hitting a season best .447 en route the win.
"From the middle of game two through the rest of the match, we played great," said Nebraska coach John Cook. "Nobody has beaten (Kansas) 3-0 (at home) in the Conference, and we didn't even beat them 3-0 (in Lincoln), so to come in and turn it up like we did, that was a very impressive effort."
Lindsey Licht was back in the lineup after sitting out Wednesday's match against Missouri with a sore elbow.
Cook may have been forced to use Licht earlier than planned because her backup, Brooke Delano, is out indefinitely after going through a surgical procedure Thursday.
Licht was limited early, only taking three swings in the first set, but saw more action as the match went on and ended up with 10 kills on 22 swings.
"It's doing good," Licht said of her elbow after the match. "It'll be sore in a little bit, but now its feeling good."
Nebraska setter Sydney Anderson said the game plan wasn't to avoid Licht early on, but took it upon herself to explore other ways to be successful.
"(I wanted to) give her a break," Anderson said. "See if we could run something else. Once I started feeding her and she was comfortable, then it was comfortable for me to go to her."
The Huskers were playing from behind for most of the first set until it was tied 16-16. Sophomore Tara Mueller would pound home NU's next three points to make it 19-17. It would be all the breathing room Nebraska would need to motor to the 25-21 win.
Both offenses imposed their will in the first set as Nebraska hit .421, while KU hit .343.
"(Kansas) was passing well and running middle and we couldn't stop it," Cook said. "But they couldn't stop us either."
The second set was tied at 10 before NU started to gradually pull away and win 25-18.
The final set was never in doubt. Nebraska led 17-11 before going on a 7-0 run and eventually winning 25-12.
Jordan Larson led the way for the Huskers with 15 kills at a staggering .438 clip. Licht and Mueller added 10 kills each while middle blockers Amanda Gates and Cory Cooper combined for 14 kills, each hitting above .700.
Cook said the difference between the first set and the final two, was that Nebraska picked up its defensive play and stopped Karina Garlington, who was last week's AVCA national player of the week. She had nine kills on 32 swings and only hit .156.
"It all started when we started touching (Garlington's attacks)," Cook said. "We've got a few touches on her and that turned the whole thing. I'm not sure they had a clean kill in game three."
Even though Nebraska has a showdown with No. 4 Texas on Wednesday, Anderson said looking past Kansas was never an issue.
"You have to take one game at a time," Anderson said. "Our coaches and seniors are really good at keeping us day-by-day with what we need to work on and what we need to focus on."
LUKENICHOLS@DAILYNEBRASKAN.COM
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