Harper Murray dominant in Nebraska volleyball’s win over TCU

The Huskers put TCU away for good in the fourth set for a 25-15, 25-23, 23-25, 25-13 win at Devaney Center during their final match of the Ameritas Players Challenge.

Nebraska improved to 3-0 as it wrapped up the first week of the season.

Sophomore outside hitter Harper Murray led the Huskers with 20 kills — 19 over the final three sets. She had seven kills and hit. 500 in the clinching fourth set.

“Me and (setter Bergen Reilly) have been working on our connection a lot, so I think it took a little bit for it to get going,” Murray said. “But obviously toward the end it turned out well.”

With Nebraska on offense at times, Murray was the game-changer.

“I thought Harper came alive tonight,” coach John Cook said. “She’s still got some work to do, but I was really impressed with her passing. She’s been working really hard on that.”

Lindsay Krause added nine kills and Merritt Beason had eight kills and two aces. Andi Jackson had kills on each of her first three attempts and finished with eight on .467 hitting. Reilly had 43 set assists and 14 digs.

Nebraska had nine aces while not concede one to a Horned Frogs team that has some strong servers.

TCU extended the match by winning the third set 25-23. Nebraska had rallied from deficits of 13-10 and 21-20 to take a 22-21 lead. But TCU won three straight points late when the Huskers had some hitting errors. Alexis Roberson had the kill on set point.

TCU had a .324 hitting percentage in the third set, when Nebraska didn’t record a block.

“I thought TCU did a nice job of creating some stress with tips and roll shots and different things, and we didn’t handle it very well,” Cook said. “We kind of lost our mind there for a while and made a ton of errors. But they bounced back in (set) four.”

Melanie Parra, a third-team All-American last season, led TCU with 14 kills, 10 digs and three blocks.

“She’s just a really good volleyball player,” Cook said. “She would be a great one to study. She’s not that physically impressive, but she’s got a great serve. … She just hits every shot. She sees everything. She just abused (Jackson’s) left hand tonight (with shots).

“That takes a lot of skill. She was doing it on purpose.”

In the fourth set Nebraska jumped to a 11-5 lead and got its offense back on track.

“Usually, this time of year you got to win some ugly games, and I would say tonight at times was ugly for us,” Cook said.

Nebraska was in some early trouble in the second set when Parra served a 5-0 run for a 13-9 lead. TCU’s lead reached 22-20 before Nebraska rallied when Parra had a serving error and the Huskers won three straight points. NU won the set 25-23 for a 2-0 match lead.

Murray had five kills during the set. Nebraska did just enough to get past a great all-around set by Parra — serving, hitting and defense. She had five kills in the set.

TCU (1-1) …………… 15 23 25 13

At Nebraska (3-0) …. 25 25 23 25

TCU (kills-aces-blocks): Parra 14-0-3, Gibson 11-0-2, Kelley 10-0-3, Sylvester 2-0-9, Roberson 2-0-0, Nicholson 1-0-1. Totals: 40-0-18.

NU: Murray 20-1-3, Krause 9-2-1, Beason 8-2-4, Jackson 8-0-4, Allick 7-0-6, Reilly 3-1-2, Orr 0-2-0, Rodriguez 0-1-0. Totals: 55-9-20.

Set assists: TCU 39 (Nicholson 31, Bramschreiber 4, Roberson 2, Gibson 1, Volpe 1), NU 52 (Reilly 43, Rodriguez 4, Choboy 2, Krause 1, Allick 1, Mauch 1). Digs: TCU 43 (Bramschreiber 14, Parra 10, Nicholson 8, Gibson 5, Kelley 5, Sylvester 1), NU 61 (Rodriguez 18, Reilly 14, Beason 9, Choboy 7, Murray 6, Allick 3, Mauch 2, Krause 1, Orr 1).