LINCOLN — Freshman Lindsay Krause made herself at home in Nebraska’s first Big Ten match at the Devaney Center this season on Saturday afternoon. The Omaha Skutt graduate led the Husker and Hawkeye starters in hitting percentage (.500) and kill percentage (.545) as No. 12 Nebraska beat Iowa 25-17, 26-24, 25-21.
Krause, an outside hitter, led the team with six kills in the first set as the Huskers won convincingly to take a 1-0 lead. She tied for the team lead with four kills in the second set, and totaled 12 for the match.
“She does all the things that typically freshmen don’t do,” coach John Cook said. “She’s a warrior.”
Iowa got off to a hot start in the second set, leading until Nebraska tied the game at 11-all. The teams went back-and-forth until Nebraska took the lead and held a slim advantage until the Hawkeyes tied the game at 24-24. A Madi Kubik kill set up a Nicklin Hames dump kill as NU took the second set 26-24.
People are also reading…
Hames, a setter, finished with 40 of Nebraska’s 47 assists and hit .400, second-best among starters after Krause.
The Hawkeyes again jumped out to a lead in the third set, until the Huskers tied the game at 10-10. Nebraska led narrowly the rest of the way before Kubik exploded for three straight kills for a 24-20 lead. An Iowa service error handed the Huskers the sweep and improved their record to 34-0 against the Hawkeyes, their best record against any Big Ten opponent.
Nebraska hit .267 compared to .216 for Iowa and beat the Hawkeyes in every major statistical category except for blocks, in which the teams tied with six. The second and third sets may have been too close for comfort, but the Huskers outplayed the Hawkeyes in the critical moments to get the sweep.
“I’m really proud of us in the way that we can keep composure when things get tight and that we can just find a way to get kills and win a match,” Kubik said.
Kubik, who had nine kills in the third set, led both teams with 15 kills and 14 digs. She led the Huskers in attacks with 37 and tied for the team lead in blocks with three. She also led the Huskers in errors with eight and hit .189 but had a kill percentage of .405.
Lexi Sun, a third-team All-American last season, did not start for the second straight match and entered for the first time in the third set. She provided a spark with three kills and an ace. Cook said the other outside hitters had performed better than Sun in practice, but she is “slowly turning it up.”
Nebraska is still missing 2020 first-team All-America middle blocker Lauren Stivrins after offseason surgery related to a back injury. Her return will complicate the starting lineup Cook has used for the past two matches. She went through a full two-hour practice this week, but the timetable for her return is unknown.
“She’ll change our team dramatically,” Cook said.
Nebraska improved to 2-0 in Big Ten play and 8-3 overall while Iowa fell to 2-10 overall. The Huskers have seven more matches before facing a stretch of four top-10 opponents in five matches. They’ll avoid those teams for another four weeks and return to action at home against 7-3 Michigan on Friday.
“I told them today if you’re paying attention to what’s going on in college volleyball, there’s no easy nights,” Cook said.