 Fien |  Rolfzen |  Keil |
-----------------------------
1 2 3 4
Bakersfield (NR) 16 8 25 19
NEBRASKA (12) 25 25 22 25
----------------------------- | ||
Kelsey Fien followed up her 12-kill performance on Friday with a career-high 17 kills against Bakersfield. Kadie Rolfzen had a double-double with 15 kills and 15 digs. Melanie Keil set a career high with eight kills on 12 attacks for a career-best .667 hitting percentage. Meghan Haggerty came up big at the net for the Huskers with six kills and nine blocks. Mary Pollmiller finished with 46 assists, and Justine Wong-Orantes had 15 digs to match her season best.
The Huskers improved to 2-2 overall and 2-0 at the tournament. Bakersfield fell to 2-4 overall. Molly O'Hagan led the Roadrunners with 11 kills.
NU totaled a season-high 14 blocks to just four for Bakersfield. The Huskers had a 60-51 advantage in digs but committed seven service errors to CSUB's four. The Huskers hit .313 while holding the Roadrunners to an .056 hitting clip.
Similar to Friday, the Huskers got off to a slow start. Bakersfield went up 7-5 early in the first set courtesy of four early errors by NU. But the Huskers settled in and went up 10-9 on a swing by Fien. That started a run where the Huskers took eight of nine rallies, keyed by two Kadie Rolfzen kills. Bakersfield got no closer than five the rest of the set, as the Huskers pulled away to the 25-16 win.
In set two, NU bolted out to a 4-1 lead and never looked back. The Huskers strung together 10 straight points to go up 17-4 with Kadie Rolfzen serving up three consecutive aces to break the backs of the Roadrunners. Redshirt freshman Kira Larson recorded her first career kill to end the set at 25-8. The Huskers' margin of victory equaled their largest set victory since a 25-4 third-set win over Louisiana-Monroe in the season opener last season.
But Bakersfield came back in set three and took leads of 9-5 and 15-11. NU rallied to tie it at 15-15 with two kills coming from Kadie Rolfzen. The Huskers then took an 18-16 lead, but Bakersfield fought back with a 5-0 run to go up 21-18. The Huskers didn't help themselves with a service error and two attacking errors during the run. NU got it back to within 21-20 on back-to-back kills by Fien and Kadie Rolfzen, but Bakersfield answered with three points to push the lead to 24-20. Back-to-back Husker points were too little too late, though, as CSUB finished a 25-22 win on a kill by Sydney Haynes.
CSUB carried its momentum into the fourth set, taking an 11-7 lead to force a Husker timeout. The Roadrunners maintained the four-point lead at 14-10, but the Huskers put together a 5-0 run to go up 15-14, aided by two Kadie Rolfzen kills and two double-stuff blocks from Haggerty combined with Amber Rolfzen and Kadie Rolfzen. With the set tied at 18-18, the Huskers finally gained some separation with a double-stuff block by Cecilia Hall and Pollmiller and a kill by Hall to the vacant back row for a 20-18 lead. The Roadrunners made it 20-19 following a timeout, but Fien blasted to the floor for a 21-19 Husker lead. Hall and Fien finished off the match with back-to-back kills.
The Huskers finish the tournament against Eastern Kentucky at 2 p.m. (CT).