Huskers quiet Missouri's 'VolleyZou'

It turns out that noon is a bit too early for Missouri's "VolleyZou" to show up in force.

But for the few sleepy animals who did make it to the Tigers' famous student section Sunday, it wasn't long before Nebraska had them back in their cages and catching up on their z's.

In a rare brunch-time Big 12 volleyball showdown, the No. 2 Huskers rolled to an impressive 25-20, 25-21, 25-18 victory over Missouri. The win marked the fifth straight sweep for Nebraska, which improved to 17-0 overall and 8-0 against its league.

The nationally televised match -- played in front of a red-and-gold splashed crowd of 3,057 -- was pushed back a day so it wouldn't conflict with Mizzou's home football game Saturday night against Oklahoma State. With the Columbia campus still recovering from the Cowboys' upset on the gridiron, the energy level at the Hearnes Center was noticeably lower compared to past Nebraska-Mizzou contests.

The handful of painted-chest rowdies who did show up never really even bared their fangs. One Mizzou fan did hold up a sign that read, "Pretend this is NU-MU football." But that's about as snarky as things got Sunday.

"Missouri has great fan support, and a lot of hecklers, I guess you could say. But they weren't as bad today," said Nebraska senior Amanda Gates. "Maybe they're all still disappointed with that loss in the football game, I don't know."

But even if the atmosphere was more subdued, Nebraska coach John Cook was plenty concerned that the early Sunday start might mess with the Huskers' normal Wednesday-Saturday match rotation during the Big 12 season.

Just 89 minutes after first serve, however, Cook would be praising his players for the way they put away the plucky Tigers.

"Missouri was playing really well -- that's the best we've seen them play," Cook said. "We just kind of weathered their runs on us, and found a way to get ahead three, four, five points at the end of games.

"You guys know how big we are on routine, and this (start time) completely takes us out of our routine. But I thought our players came out really focused and did a nice job."

Mizzou swung for a .324 clip in the opening set. But for the match, the Huskers enjoyed a .316-.165 edge in attack percentage. Nebraska slowly but surely managed to cool off the Tigers' offense, thanks in large part to a combined 34 digs by Kayla Banwarth and Jordan Larson.

Julianna Klein, a standout sophomore from Keota, Iowa, put away a match-high 16 kills against the Huskers. But no other Mizzou attacker managed more than six kills.

Meanwhile, Nebraska setter Sydney Anderson had 39 assists and did a good job of spreading around the ball.

Tara Mueller led the Huskers with 14 kills and earned some of the loudest cheers of the day while playing in front of a large gathering of family members. The sophomore out of Scottsdale, Ariz., never has called Missouri home, but her parents are from St. Louis.

Anderson also clicked with her middle blockers. Gates had five stuffs and six kills on .462 attacking, while Kori Cooper added seven kills and hit .429.

Larson finished with nine kills and served up Nebraska's only ace, and Lindsey Licht turned in seven kills and four blocks.

"Missouri played its game and played really scrappy," said Mueller, who added seven digs and hit .364. "We just had to pick up on that on our side and play our game. We need to play like it's for the national championship all the time, because that's how teams want to play us."

The Huskers return home for a match Wednesday night against Baylor.



Nebraska (17-0, 8-0)    25 25 25

Missouri (8-9, 2-5)       20 21 18

Nebraska (kills-aces-blocks): Anderson 4-0-1, Schwartz 0-0-0, Larson 9-1-2, Cooper 7-0-0, Gates 6-0-5, Mueller 14-0-0, Banwarth 1-0-0, Licht 7-0-0.

Missouri (kills-aces-blocks): Wang 2-1-0, Hantouli 4-0-2, Klein 16-1-0, Armendariz 0-0-0, Lopez 0-0-0, Wang 4-0-0, Brimmage 4-0-1, Vann 0-1-0, M. Wilson 6-0-2, C. Wilson 0-0-1.

Set assists: Missouri 33 (Wang 23); Nebraska 43 (Anderson 39, Schwartz 1, Larson 1, Mueller 1, Banwarth 1). A--3,057.