No. 1 Nebraska Sweeps SMU in Spikes Under the Lights Final at AT&T Stadium

ARLINGTON, Texas — AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, was turned into a volleyball cathedral on Thursday night, and No. 1 Nebraska played like it knew exactly where it was. The Huskers swept No. 17 Florida in the semifinal and then rolled No. 11 SMU 21-12, 21-11 to win the inaugural Spikes Under the Lights.

The wins do not count in the record book. They count in everything else: the first look at a team ranked No. 1 in the AVCA preseason poll, a first look at coach Dani Busboom Kelly's roster, and one of the stranger, more spectacular settings a volleyball match has ever had.

A Stadium Built for a Different Sport

Aaron Bui's photos make the scale impossible to miss. A wide frame shows the stadium bowl filled with fans in red under the giant video board. Another catches players in white running out through an arch of lights and smoke. And one fan holds up a sign that reads: "I came from Canada to watch Nebraska."

The format fit the occasion: two-set matches to 21, a quick sprint rather than a marathon, with the Huskers beating Florida in the semifinal and SMU in the final on the same night.

Set One: Twelve-Two and Gone

The championship match started like a statement. Two kills from Harper Murray and an attack error put Nebraska up 12-2, and SMU spent the rest of the set trying to claw out of a hole that was already dug. A pair of Husker miscues brought the Mustangs back to within six at 16-10. Then Nebraska scored five of the next seven points, including the last two on SMU errors, to close it out 21-12.

Set Two: Four-Zero, Twice

The second set was tied at six after an SMU kill, and that was the last time it felt close. The Huskers reeled off four consecutive points, kills from Manaia Ogbechie, Virginia Adriano and Teraya Sigler plus a Murray ace, to make it 14-8. Another 4-0 run, capped by kills from Sigler and Cogill, stretched the lead to 18-9. Nebraska finished with kills from Ryan Hunter and Murray and a block assist from Bergen Reilly and Cogill for the 21-11 final.

The Numbers That Mattered

Nebraska hit .339 as a team for the match. SMU hit .068. In a game played to 21, that is a gulf. Sigler led the Huskers with seven kills and five digs. Murray had six kills, five digs and an ace. Manaia Ogbechie, Andi Jackson and Skyler Pierce each had three kills. Reilly, the setter, finished with 21 assists and a team-best two blocks, and Olivia Mauch had seven digs.

Those are the kinds of numbers that tell you the offense was spread around, not powered by one hitter.

The Semifinal That Set It Up

Before SMU, Nebraska had to get past Florida, and that match was closer. The Huskers edged the Gators 21-19 and 21-18. According to Nebraska's game recap, the Huskers hit .220 and held Florida to .169, with seven blocks. Sigler had six kills, and Adriano and Jackson five apiece. Reilly had 19 assists in that win.

It was in that first set that the Gators briefly leveled things. Nebraska held a 10-7 lead before Florida rallied to tie it at 17 and then again at 19. Ogbechie finished the set with back-to-back kills. In the second set, Florida's biggest lead was 13-10 before the Huskers answered with a 5-0 run, and a kill from Adriano and a Sigler ace sealed the sweep.

What It Means

Do not read too much into an exhibition, and do not read too little. A No. 1 team that sweeps both of its exhibition matches is telling the rest of the country that it is ready. Nebraska hit well when it needed to and defended well when it had to, and the roster looks deep.

The real tests come fast. The Huskers' first official match is Saturday, Aug. 29, in Las Vegas against UNLV, followed on Sunday, Aug. 30, by a matchup with No. 2 Texas. That is a heavy opening weekend. The Spikes Under the Lights title does not appear in the standings, but the confidence of a two-match sweep in a football stadium should travel.

For SMU, the match was a lesson in the standards of the sport's top tier. A .068 hitting percentage is not a number any coach wants to see, but the Mustangs, ranked No. 11, got a stadium-sized rep against the preseason No. 1 team in the country, and that is its own kind of experience.

The Close

Volleyball in a football stadium is a spectacle by definition. The best part about Thursday was that the volleyball held up. Nebraska looked like Nebraska. The sign from Canada made it across the border, and the volleyball lived up to the setting.

Photo Credit: Aaron Bui/Undrafted