Huskers drop second straight match at Stanford

Huskers drop second straight match at Stanford
Courtesy/NU Media Relations
September 14th, 2021 | huskers.com

The No. 6 Nebraska volleyball team dropped a road decision to No. 16 Stanford Tuesday night, falling 3-1 (19-25, 25-12, 21-25, 23-25) at Maples Pavilion. The Huskers are now 6-2 (0-0 Big Ten) on the season, while the Cardinal improves to 5-2 (0-0 Pac-12).

Kayla Caffey paced Nebraska with 12 kills on .429 hitting and added a match-high seven blocks. Freshmen Ally Batenhorst and Lindsay Krause joined her in double figures with 10 kills apiece. Batenhorst narrowly missed a double-double, adding nine digs and three blocks.

Nicklin Hames achieved her sixth straight double-double on 43 assists and 11 digs with two blocks. Lexi Rodriguez (16) and Kenzie Knuckles (14) each had double-figure dig nights.

Callie Schwarzenbach chipped in nine kills on .500 hitting.

The Cardinal hit .228 as a team to Nebraska’s .179. The two teams had an identical 10.5 blocks on the night.

Stanford was led by a match-high 21 kills from Caitie Baird, who had just two attack errors and hit .487. Sami Francis had 13 more kills, and Kendall Kipp had 10.

Set 1

In the opening set, the Cardinal came out hitting .303 — and kept Nebraska to .121 — aided by six kills from Baird, who hit .600 with no errors. Stanford took an 8-3 lead early, capped by consecutive aces by Baird. The Huskers never led in the set — and trailed by as many as eight — but had a late 3-0 surge to stave off set point. After a solo block by Batenhorst and two Stanford attack errors cut it to 24-19, Baird’s sixth kill sealed for the Cardinal at 25-19.

Set 2

Nebraska flipped the switch in the second set, hitting .385 as a team with just two errors while limiting the Cardinal to .121. NU worked past a 5-5 tie, using a Caffey kill and four straight Stanford miscues go up by five. A series of short runs midway through boosted the lead, and it was all Huskers to close the set with a 5-0 run. Three kills between Hames and Krause, a Madi Kubik ace and a final Krause/Schwarzenbach block finished off the set at 25-12.

Set 3

Stanford assumed an 8-4 lead to start game three, and four straight Cardinal points forced an NU timeout. The Huskers managed to pull within three by 19-16 after Batenhorst put down a kill, then teamed with Caffey for a block to prompt a Cardinal timeout. NU trimmed it to two at 22-20 on another Kubik ace, but Stanford claimed the set 25-21 with the help of two late kills from Baird. The Huskers hit just .057 in the set and were tagged with 10 attack errors.

Set 4

Back-to-back kills brought the set to a 7-7 lock, and a Caffey solo stop helped NU regain the lead at 8-7. After a pair of Baird kills and an NU attack error, the Huskers called for a timeout, down 12-10. The set tied three more times, and after a pair of Caffey kills, Stanford responded with a Francis kill and two blocks from her and Vicini to go up 17-15. Stanford pushed it to match point at 24-21, but the Huskers held them at bay when Caffey and Krause both terminated to pull NU within one. But Francis had the final kill of the night to close it for Stanford, 25-23.

Noting Tonight’s Match

-Tuesday night was the Huskers’ third straight top-20 opponent since Sept. 8.

-NU’s trio of freshman hitters – Lindsay Krause, Ally Batenhorst and Whitney Lauenstein — combined for 25 of the Huskers’ 50 kills on the night.

-Nebraska’s last time having dropped consecutive losses was 2018.

-With its fourth straight win in the series, Stanford leads 11-6 all-time.

Up Next

Nebraska returns home for its non-conference finale with No. 5 Louisville on Saturday, Sept. 18. First serve is set for 7 p.m. at the Devaney Center.

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