LINCOLN, Neb. — Georgia Tech volleyball coach Michelle Collier changed lineups, switched rotations, called timeouts, and challenged three calls. None of it worked.
The Yellow Jackets’ season ended Thursday with a 11-25, 16-25, and 21-25 loss at No. 1 Nebraska in the regional semifinals of the NCAA Tournament.
Nebraska, which has swept its first three postseason opponents, finished with 37 kills and nine errors for a 0.326 hitting percentage while Tech had a season-worst 0.019 percentage including 28 attack errors. Its previous low was 0.057 in a Nov. 10 loss to Pittsburgh. Top hitter Tamara Otene had nine kills, 14 errors, and a minus-0.139 percentage.
“We were trying to get away from the block too much,” Collier said. “I wish we would have played a little more freely and let it rip.”
Tech, in the tournament for the fourth consecutive year and 13th time overall, came into the match with a .251 hitting percentage but were plagued with hitting errors in a lopsided first set.
Nebraska (31-1) darted to an 8-2 lead as Tech struggled receiving serves, leading to off-balance attacks. The Jackets finished the set with 11 attack errors, only one of which was a Nebraska block.
An overturned call gave Afedo Manyang a kill, cutting the deficit to 10-6, but Nebraska responded with three consecutive points and never led by less than six the rest of the set.
Eleven was the fewest points the Jackets had scored in a first-to-25 set this season, the previous low being 13 in the Nov. 10 loss to Pittsburgh.
The Jackets (24-7) again fell behind quickly in the second set as Nebraska took a 6-2 lead. Twice Tech was able to close within two – the second on a kill from Manyang that capped a three-point run that made the score 14-12 – but never took the lead. Nebraska (31-1) responded with a block and two kills to push the lead back to five. Andi Jackson and Harper Murray’s block put Nebraska ahead 20-14, and Tech didn’t threaten the rest of the set.
“We were all over them,” Nebraska coach John Cook said.
The Jackets had 10 more attack errors in the set, while Nebraska had 12 kills and one error for a .500 hitting percentage. Nebraska added six blocks in the set, while Tech had zero.
“They are a great team. They put a lot of pressure on us, but I feel like (the mistakes) were on our side,” said Bianca Bertolino, who finished with eight kills.
Even when Tech seemed in position to score a point, Nebraska’s talented back row of Lexi Rodriguez and Laney Choboy had the answer. On a point early in the second set, Rodriguez, the two-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, twice made lunging saves, enabling Ally Batenhorst eventually to win the point with a shot down the line.
Collier changed her two-setter lineup, asking Soares to take over that spot exclusively in the third set. Soares’ ace tied the set at 9-9, and another ace from Paola Pimentel put Tech ahead 12-11.
Anna Boezi, who hadn’t played in the first two sets, pounded a kill to put Tech ahead 17-16 and cause Nebraska coach John Cook to take his first timeout of the day. Boezi had three kills in the set after grabbing two in Tech’s two NCAA Tournament wins.
Nebraska’s Merrit Beason’s kill out of a scramble put Nebraska ahead 20-19 and brought forth an emphatic roar from the sellout crowd. That was part of a six-point run Nebraska used to gain control of the final set. Beason’s 11 kill – the most in the match – completed the sweep.
The Jackets averaged 1.63 aces per set this season, but were held to three Thursday. Bertolino did not have an ace, ending her year with 62 – two short of the school record under the current scoring rules.
“She’s the one we were most worried about,” Cook said. “One of our goals was that we were not going to let her get on a run.”
Nebraska has averaged around 13,000 fans per home match this season – a number severely distorted by the 92,003 who filled Nebraska’s football stadium for a volleyball match against Omaha in August. It is believed to be the largest crowd ever to watch a women’s sporting event in the United States. A smaller but still imposing 8,580 packed the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Thursday.
“The Bob showed up. They were ready to go. It didn’t even matter that we were playing at one o’clock,” Jackson said.
It was the second sad homecoming for Collier. The Brazil native first came to the state of Nebraska as a high school exchange student in 1996. Living in tiny Holdrege – about 150 miles west of Lincoln – she starred for the local high school team.
“That’s where I learned to speak English,” Collier said. “I asked them to send me to a good volleyball state; they made the right choice.”
Collier attended Nebraska matches while in high school and eventually returned to play against the Cornhuskers during her stellar career at South Florida. Collier is the only player in school history to have her number retired after putting up 2,729 career kills – still the fifth-most in NCAA Division I history. Sadly, she tore a knee ligament at Nebraska during a match in 1999, ending her season.
“Nebraska means a lot to me,” she said. “There’s a lot of history here. It’s great to see what they’ve done for the sport.”
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