More Sports: HuskersHQ Front | Fonner Park | NASCAR | High School Archives

NU offense sizzles against Sooners

LINCOLN -- For just the second time this season, the Nebraska volleyball team reached the .400 mark for hitting percentage in a match.

The Huskers, who hit .424 in a three-game victory over Iowa State last week, hit an even. 400 in a 15-4, 15-7, 15-6 victory over Oklahoma Wednesday before 3,463 fans at the NU Coliseum.

But Nebraska coach Terry Pettit wouldn't say that performance shows the Husker offense has arrived.

"If we were playing (No. 1 ) Penn State, and we hit that, I'd feel pretty good about it,'' Pettit said. "But if you look statistically, other teams attacked well against Oklahoma, too. Oklahoma's ball handling is not as strong as some of the other teams in the upper half of the conference.''

Junior Nancy Meendering again led the way with 15 kills and a .480 hitting percentage. Freshman Greichaly Cepero had nine kills and hit a whopping .615. Junior Angie Oxley and freshman Amber Holmquist each hit an even .500 with six and five kills, respectively.

"We are getting better. We are developing a rhythm. I thought Greichaly the last three or four matches is just getting better,'' Pettit said. "She's getting more comfortable hitting out of the back court.''

Nebraska (13-4, 5-2 in the Big 12) was never really challenged by the Sooners (6-10, 1-5). NU ran off to a 10-4 lead in the first game, then upped it to 12-4 on an ace serve by Meendering and an ace block by Cepero and Holmquist.

After two sideouts, NU scored on an Oklahoma hitting error, an ace serve by Lindsay Wischmeier and a kill by Mandy Monson to end the game.

Monson, a senior from Wallace, had six kills in the match.

"I felt great tonight,'' Monson said. "I rested. A couple of days I went kind of light so I feel really good.''

Pettit said he had limited Monson's jumping in practice the last two days in order to keep her fresh. He said she's what assistant head coach John Cook would call a "thoroughbred.''

"She's so intense she has difficulty knowing when to relax,'' Pettit said. "She's pushing all the time. When you have an athlete like that you really have to back them off a little bit.''

Oklahoma got off to a 5-1 lead in the second game, but Jill McWilliams served five straight points to give the Huskers the lead. A bit later, Wischmeier served three straight to make it 9-6. The Huskers slowly built the lead, eventually ending the game on an ace serve by Oxley.

The Sooners struggled with their passing for most of the match.

"I think if we could pass the ball right to the setting position all night long, we could probably give them a pretty good match,'' Oklahoma coach Miles Pabst said. "But our passing is not what it needs to be and our serving is not what it needs to be.''

The Sooners once again got off to a 3-0 lead in the third game, but it didn't last long. Cepero, aided by three OU hitting errors, served four straight points to give Nebraska the lead.

Oxley ran off a string of five straight, including her second ace of the match, to make it 9-3.

Then it was Meendering's turn to serve five straight points to give the Huskers a 14-3 advantage. The Sooners managed to put together a three-point run, but Tonia Tauke ended the match with an ace block.

Nikki Henk and Laura Pilakowski, a freshman from Columbus, teamed with Tauke to give the Huskers some help off the bench.

"The people that came off the bench, Pilakowski, Henk and Tonia, our level of play didn't fall off when they came in,'' Pettit said. "That has to happen. That's helpful for the players going into this weekend to know we can substitute strength and put people on the court who are mentally ready to play.''

Oklahoma, which entered the match second in the Big 12 in hitting percentage at .258, was held to .143 by the Huskers. But Pettit thought that could have been lower.

"I was a little disappointed defensively,'' Pettit said. "I thought maybe we could hold Oklahoma to .100. I felt we let a couple opportunities get away from us.

"That may be picky, but I'm really not focused tonight on winning or losing. I was just trying to see where we were with certain things.''

---

Top Of This Page | Send This Story to a Friend

---

More Coverage