November 07, 2001
No. 15 Texas A&M fell short of its upset bid against No. 2 Nebraska as the Cornhuskers defeated the Aggies, 30-28, 30-24, 30-21, in front of 4,088 at Nebraska Coliseum.
With the victory, Nebraska improves to 21-1 overall and 14-0 in the Big 12 Conference. In addition, the Huskers extended their conference winning streak to 44 and their home winning streak to 41. Meanwhile, the Aggies suffered their first loss on the road after winning 12 straight away from the friendly confines of G. Rollie White Coliseum and fall to 18-4 overall and 11-3 in league play. In addition, A&M walks away still winless in nine trips to Lincoln.
The Aggies allowed the first game to slip away in the end as Nebraska overcame a five-point deficit at 10-5 to tie the score at 17. A&M followed by scoring four consecutive points, but the Huskers once again closed the gap and tied the score at 28 on an A&M attack error. The Aggies followed with another attack error, allowing Nebraska to take its first lead of the game at 29-28. All-American Nancy Metcalf then posted her sixth kill of the game to give the Huskers the come-from-behind opening-frame victory.
"I thought we kept a good pace," A&M coach Laurie Corbelli said, "but we just couldn't execute when we needed to."
The Aggies built three-point leads three times in Game 2 and never trailed until a kill by Anna Schrad gave the Huskers their first lead at 15-14. Nebraska took its biggest lead of the game at 25-19 on an A&M attack error. The Aggies couldn't get any closer than four points, the last coming at 28-24.
"We couldn't get the momentum back after they broke the tie in Game 2," Corbelli said. "They got too many runs of points that we couldn't stop, and we were having a hard time getting the momentum going."
A kill by Nebraska's Laura Pilakowski and an A&M attack error gave the Huskers the 30-24 win and a 2-0 lead in the match.
Nebraska out-hit A&M, .415 to .091, in the final game while pulling away for a 30-21 win. The Huskers built a game-high 11-point advantage at 21-10 when the Aggies rallied for five consecutive points to cut the lead to six. But it was the closest A&M would get as reserve Pam Krejci put down a kill for the game-winner.
Metcalf led Nebraska with a match-high 17 kills. Middle blocker Amber Holmquist added 12 kills while hitting at a .435 clip as the Huskers out-hit A&M, .269 to .119. Holmquist also added a match-high eight blocks to lead Nebraska to a 15-3 block advantage.
Brandi Mount led the Aggies with 13 kills and 14 digs, and Michelle Cole added 12 kills.
"I was proud how prepared we were and proud of how we executed," Corbelli said. "We just have to find a way to break up Nebraska's block. Every coach in the nation knows that is what you have to do against them."
The Aggies return home Saturday to play host Iowa State. First serve is at 7 p.m. at G. Rollie White Coliseum.