#1 Nebraska vs #4 Kentucky 8-31-2025 WVB
Dear Readers~
Time for the second game I'll be covering of the 2025 NCAA Division I indoor volleyball season. I'll be covering #1 Nebraska as they take on #4 Kentucky in Nashville, Tennessee at Bridgestone Arena as part of the Broadway Block Party on Sunday, August 31st. Just like with the previous game I covered, no team is home or away, which means this is a neutral game. Going into the game, Nebraska is sitting at 3-0 while Kentucky is sitting at 2-0. With each team being undefeated and both ranked in the top 5, who do you think will come out on top? Let's get into this game to find out.
For those who have seen my coverage of the NCAA beach games back in the spring, I explained the difference between the beach and indoor games. For those who don't know, the way indoor works is you have to win 3 sets, whether it be all 3, or 3 of the 4/5 sets that are played. As for the scoring, for the beach, it's played first to 21 while indoor is played first to 25 and both require a lead of two points or more for the set to conclude. If a fifth set is needed, the teams play first to 15 instead of 25 but the lead of two points or more is still enforced. Unlike the beach game, you can switch players in and out, like in basketball for example, but with beach you're not able to switch them out and you only get one timeout for each set per team. Enough about the beach game, let's get into this indoor game from Nashville, Tennessee's capital.
For the first set, it ended at 26-24 (once again proving why a lead of two points or more is important) in favor of Kentucky and giving them a great start to the game. The second set ended 25-20, also in favor of Kentucky and giving them a 2-0 lead over Nebraska. The third set would end 25-19 in favor of Nebraska. The fourth set would end 25-23 in favor of Nebraska and cause a fifth set. This fifth set would end at 15-8 in favor of Nebraska. This would not only give them the 3-2 win over Kentucky but have what's called a reverse sweep (a sweep in volleyball is when you win 3 sets in a row but since Kentucky won the first two and Nebraska won the last three, this is a reverse).
Let's see who some of the top athletes are from each team for this game. We'll be covering Kills, Aces, Blocks, Assists, and Digs. For Kills, we go to Nebraska's Harper Murry and Kentucky's Brooklyn DeLeye, who each had 23. The next highest of each team is Kentucky's Eva Hudson with 19 and Nebraska's Andi Jackson and Rebekah Allick, each with 10. For Aces, we go to Kentucky's Ava Sarafa, with 2. Kentucky's Trinity Ward, Asia Thigpen, and Brooklyn DeLeye along with Nebraska's Teraya Sigler, Olivia Mauch, Harper Murray, and Andi Jackson all had one ace of their own. Blocks are led by Nebraska's Rebekah Allick with 8 while Kentucky was led by Brooke Bultema and Ava Sarafa, each with 6. Next we have assists and with a 5 set game, these numbers are quite high. Nebraska was led by Bergen Reilly with 46 while Kentucky was led by Ava Sarafa with 43. Bergen Reilly (a 6'1 setter) is the leader of our next stat, digs. She got 18 digs on top of her 46 assists. The leader for Kentucky goes to Molly Tuozzo (a 5'7 libero), with 16. Nebraska's Harper Murray (a 6'2 outside hitter) had the third highest at 15. Nebraska's Olivia Mauch had the third highest at 14 and at 5'6 is the only DS/Libero of Nebraska to make the top three for this stat.
With this game covered, let's see who these two will play next. Nebraska will play Michigan on Wednesday, September 24th in Lincoln while Kentucky's next game will also be on Wednesday, September 24th as they host South Carolina in Lexington.
Comments
Post a Comment