K-State swept by No. 5 Nebraska

Don't let the numbers fool you.

Nebraska recorded a .305 hitting percentage, with two players scoring on almost half of their shots. It sided out better. It had more blocks, kills and serving aces.

But when the No. 3 Cornhuskers (17-1, 9-0 Big 12 Conference) extended their perfect conference record by sweeping K-State (9-11, 3-6) last weekend, it had to put up a fight, because the Wildcats nearly took them a number of times.

In the first two games Ñ which Nebraska won 25-19 and 25-21, respectively Ñ K-State would take an early lead, Nebraska was slowly pull even, the teams would rally for a long time, and then the Cornhuskers would grab a run that K-State could not counter, which head coach Suzie Fritz related after the match.

"We play point-for-point for a while, and then we give up three, four, and then we can't make them up," she said.

In the third game, the Cornhuskers took that lead up front, and K-State could not recover, losing 18-25.

Sophomore middle blocker Alex Muff said her team is good enough to play against highly ranked teams, but it needs to stop them from getting away.

"I think we started out really well against Nebraska," Muff said. "I think it goes to show that we're right there with these teams and that we can play with them. It's just a matter of stringing points together."

Muff would know a thing or two about playing well: with her 9 kills, four blocks and .412 hitting percentage, she earned praise from Fritz and kept Nebraska on its toes. But the Player of the Match award goes to senior libero Lauren Mathewson, who recorded 19 digs and two service aces. This is the third time that she has accomplished this, an impressive made even more so considering that all of the matches ended in three games.

Fritz lauded Mathewson and said her team's front-row and serving ability paired strongly.

"I thought we were OK at the net; I thought we did some nice things at the net; we slowed them down," Fritz said. "But the biggest thing that kept us in it was our serving.

If K-State had extended the energy from the first part of game one to the rest of the match, then it probably would have beaten Nebraska. Early on, it took four consecutive points Ñ with back-to-back aces from Mathewson Ñ to pull out 6-2. Nebraska soon caught up, though, and a ferocious battle for the lead commenced. After five tied scores and some lead changes, the Cornhuskers strung together seven points to take the advantage by four, which they held until the end, winning 25-19.

The abuse and tenacity of Nebraska's front row kept up enough pressure to stifle the serving and passing. Sophomore setter Caitlyn Donahue was doing so much chasing for digs that she was unable to properly fill her role, and the .306 team hitting percentage from Nebraska kept Mathewson and her defensive team busy for the entire game.

Following the form of the previous, K-State took the lead in game two, but Nebraska soon pulled even to a 12-all tie. From there, the Cornhuskers mustered a number of runs and took the all-important lead that almost guarantees a win. The Wildcats held it together up to the finale, but Nebraska managed to keep its formidable lead to take game two, 25-21.

On Nebraska's side of the net, there were big hits and even bigger blocks. With 50 percent more successful attacks than K-State, the Cornhuskers strong-armed K-State's defense into concession, and their blocks sprung the ball straight back multiple times. This is certainly not to say that K-State hit a slump; on the contrary, the Wildcats put up seven blocks of their own and an impressive bit of scrambling that had been absent for too long, but their collective offensive effort took a dive, which showed on the scoreboard.

In the third game, Nebraska finally managed to start out with and maintain an uncontested lead. K-State burnt both of its timeouts within minutes due to a seven-point run from the Cornhuskers, a purple deficit which Nebraska used to its advantage throughout the game, grabbing three more heavy runs. At the end, the Wildcats put up one final effort of three points, but Nebraska was too far ahead, and it won the match 25-18.

The initial run from the Cornhuskers put K-State too far behind, and the subsequent ones put the nails in the coffin. Sophomore opposite hitter Kathleen Ludwig said her team was still trying just as hard, but they let the game get away from it.

"After game two, we were saying, 'Keep fighting; keep going; keep working hard,'" Ludwig said, "and we got down a little bit early in the third, and that's never going to help."

For Fritz, she said her team just needs to stop the runs from taking away the match.

"It really comes down to our ability to sustain," Fritz said. "We're in it, and we're losing games with our inability to side-out."