Huskers fall to Texas in NCAA’s volleyball regional final Monday

The fifth-seeded Nebraska volleyball team saw its season end Monday, as the Huskers fell to fourth seed Texas, 3-1 at the CHI Health Center in Omaha.
Texas won the first set 25-22, before Nebraska bounced back to take the second set 25-19. The Huskers led by three points early in set three before Texas stormed back to win 25-15.
The Longhorns then erased a 13-8 deficit in the fourth set, closing out the match with a 25-20 win.
Texas (26-1) advanced to the NCAA semifinal with the win, while Nebraska ended its first-ever spring season with a 16-3 record.
Texas hit .336 in Monday’s match, the highest mark by a Husker opponent this season. Asjia O’Neal had 10 kills on 17 swings with seven blocks, while Skylar Fields hit .630 and tied Logan Eggleston for match-high honors with 18 kills.
Nebraska was held to a .171 attacking percentage. The Huskers did serve up nine aces, but Texas nearly matched that with eight aces of their own. The Longhorns doubled the Huskers in blocks (12-6), while Nebraska won the dig battle (48-45).
Madi Kubik led the Huskers with 15 kills. Kayla Caffey put down eight kills on only 14 swings and added five blocks. Lexi Sun had seven kills, 13 digs and a pair of aces, while Lauren Stivrins also had seven kills. Nicklin Hames had a double-double with 34 assists and 13 digs.
Beats Baylor in region semis
Behind a strong serving performance, the Huskers swept 12th-seeded Baylor 3-0 Sunday afternoon to advance to the Regional Final for the ninth straight year.
The Huskers came from behind to win set one, 25-21. Nebraska never trailed in a 25-17 victory in set two, and the third set was tied at 14 before NU pulled away for a 25-19 win.
Nebraska had eight aces in the win, while its strong serving consistently forced Baylor out of system, as the Bears hit  just .141 in the match. NU also out-blocked Baylor 8-4 and had six more digs than the Bears.
The Huskers’ streak of nine consecutive NCAA Regional Finals is the longest in the country, and Nebraska’s 30 appearances in an NCAA Regional Final are the most in NCAA history.
With All-American Lauren Stivrins sidelined, fellow All-American Lexi Sun led the Huskers. Sun served up a career-high five aces, had five digs and led Nebraska with 12 kills on .345 hitting. Callie Schwarzenbach, who filled in for Stivrins, had three kills on seven swings and totaled a match-high five blocks. Madi Kubik added eight kills for Nebraska, while Kayla Caffey and Jazz Sweet had seven kills apiece.
In addition to guiding a balanced offense that had four players with at least seven kills in the three-set match, Nicklin Hames had 31 assists, 11 digs, four kills, three blocks and one service ace. Kenzie Knuckles had a match-high 13 digs and serving specialist Hayley Densberger had a pair of aces.
Baylor was led by 2019 National Player of the Year Yossiana Pressley, who had a match-high 15 kills. The Bears ended their season with a 20-7 record.