Nebraska volleyball wins first test and defeats Florida A&M in first round of NCAA tournament

Nebraska got a pairing that reflected its No. 2 overall seed in the 64-team tournament, defeating Florida A&M 25-3, 25-9, 25-17 at the Devaney Sports Center. During a long serve at Nebraska, you felt sorry for the A&M players at times.

The game was over in about 70 minutes.

Nebraska outscored the Rattlers in kills (43-16), ace serves (6-1) and blocks (6-5).

Nebraska (30-2) had a .391 batting average and held A&M to a minus-.043 batting average.

Sophomore outside hitter Harper Murray led the Huskers with 12 kills and a .440 batting average. Andi Jackson added eight kills and Olivia Mauch had four ace serves.

Even though the pairing wasn’t a good match, it was a great start for Nebraska. After Mauch blocked nine straight serves, drained an ace and several other serves that kept the Rattlers off balance on offense, Nebraska led 12-1. Nebraska landed kills on nine of its first 17 attempts.

It ended as the most lopsided set in program history, with the Rattlers finishing the set with just three points.

Florida A&M had just two kills on 29 attempts in the set. The Huskers won the final 12 points of the set, served by Merritt Beason. Murray had six kills in the set.

Things went a little better for A&M in the second set until Mauch ended up scoring six points in a row, including the last two points on aces with some nasty moves.

In the first set, Florida A&M led for the first time in the game and trailed just 12-8 later in the set before Nebraska pulled away and completed the victory.

Nebraska plays Miami (22-10) in the second round on Saturday at 7 p.m.