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September 27, 2014
Huskers Spoil Iowa's
Home Opener With Sweep
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Ostrander
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Rolfzen
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Rolfzen
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                    1   2   3 
Iowa     (NR)      21  13  16 
NEBRASKA (8)       25  25  25 
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Iowa City, Iowa. — The No. 8 Nebraska volleyball team spoiled Iowa's home opener with a 25-21, 25-13, 25-16 sweep at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Saturday night.

The Huskers, playing just their second true road match of the season, moved to 8-3 overall and 2-0 in conference play, both wins coming against the Hawkeyes (8-5, 0-2 Big Ten).

Alicia Ostrander and Amber Rolfzen paced the Husker attack with 11 kills. Kadie Rolfzen had nine, and Melanie Keil had six. Mary Pollmiller recorded 33 assists and two service aces. Justine Wong-Orantes had a team-high 13 digs. Iowa was led by Lauren Brobst's nine kills.

The Huskers hit .378 on the night and held Iowa to a .167 clip. Nebraska outdug Iowa 31-26 and served up six service aces to just one for Iowa.

Nebraska jumped in front 3-0 in the first set and maintained the early edge thanks to three kills by Amber Rolfzen. But Iowa fought back to take a 9-8 lead before serving long to even it up. With the set tied 10-10, the Huskers put together a 4-0 run with Pollmiller serving, started by an Ostrander kill. Iowa went on a 3-0 spurt to get within 19-18 and force a Husker timeout, but Meghan Haggerty smashed a kill immediately after the timeout and Kadie Rolfzen hit one down for a 21-18 lead. NU finished the 25-21 win on another kill from Kadie Rolfzen.

The Huskers broke away from a 3-3 tie in set two to go up 9-4 after three errors by Iowa and a kill from Ostrander. After Iowa made it 9-6, Nebraska pushed the lead to 15-6 with a 6-0 run after a double block from Melanie Keil and Ostrander, and two kills by Kadie Rolfzen surrounding an Iowa error. Ostrander had three kills in the Huskers' final five points to lead NU to the 25-13 victory. The Huskers hit .458 in the second set after just .265 in the first set. NU cut its attacking errors in half from six to three in game two.

After struggling in set three against Iowa on Wednesday, Keil made sure Nebraska got off on the right foot in set three this time by registering a combined block with Haggerty and two early kills to put the Huskers up 4-0. The Huskers extended the lead to 14-5 on an ace from Alexa Ethridge, forcing a Hawkeye timeout. Amber Rolfzen hammered two more kills and Albrecht served up an ace to give the Huskers an 18-8 lead, and the Huskers finished strong for the 25-16 win.

The Huskers return home for a pair of conference matches next week. Nebraska hosts No. 3 Penn State on Friday at 7 p.m. and Ohio State on Saturday at 5 p.m. Friday's match will air on BTN, and Saturday's match will be on NET.

Source: University of Nebraska Athletic Dept.