No. 2 Huskers beat Bruins in Big Ten opener for Cook's 700th Nebraska win

No. 2 Nebraska rebounded from a disappointing third-set finish to beat UCLA in the Big Ten's opening game Friday night.

The win was the 700th of coach John Cook's career at Nebraska. The show honored his 25th year in Lincoln by handing out Cook bobbleheads to the 8,846 fans at the Devaney Center and playing messages from former players on the video board during breaks.

“I blocked everything out,” Cook said. “I didn’t even know this was the 700th win, so I didn’t know that. Of course, we did all the Bobble stuff a few days ago… Here's how I look at it: Our marketing department does a great job of making everything fun for our fans, our team and the University of Nebraska athletic department. They do some really fun things…They do a great job of connecting people to our program and so hats off to them.”

On the court, Nebraska (11-1) handed new conference opponent UCLA (6-4) its first Big Ten League loss, 25-22, 25-10, 23-25, 25-22. The Huskers appeared to be on their way to an easy win before the Bruins rallied to give Nebraska the win in the fourth.

“I thought it was a typical Big Ten matchup,” Cook said. “You can’t take anything for granted. It's never over until it's over, and that's how it will be for the next 10 weeks. I thought UCLA played great in the third game and took all the momentum away from us. You can lose it so quickly, just as you can get it so quickly. But in the fourth game we responded well and I thought we played some good volleyball and then we really stepped it up at the end.”

Taylor Landfair came off the bench and posted a Nebraska career-best 13 kills on .414 hitting and four blocks.

“One of my favorite things about having her on the court is just her demeanor,” Rebekah Allick said of Landfair. “Whether it’s after a mistake or after a kill, it could be a jump or a tip, it’s the same girl every time. And so it kind of provides stability, especially when teams go on runs like that. But getting numbers and kills like that is always great. It's always exciting to have that; It just shows the talent of our team.”

Andi Jackson tied for the team lead with Landfair with 13 kills on .409 hitting and six blocks. Allick matched Jackson with six blocks of his own (two solo) and added seven kills while hitting .538. Nebraska hit .246 overall.

The Bruins entered the night ranked 22nd in the country in batting average, but Nebraska held them to a season-low .153. Lexi Rodriguez led the way with a season-high 20 digs, while Olivia Mauch added eight.

“Lexi Rodriguez, dude, she’s a machine,” Allick said. “I’m taking another look at this one excavation in particular. I can't remember who struck, just her composure – she's a veteran through and through. We are known for our defense. To be honest, we've probably been known for our defense for a couple of decades at this point, but we just realized that having those valuable touches, converting those touches into plays, kills and things like that is hugely important.”

Neither team managed to create much separation in the first set. Both teams were eliminated incredibly quickly at the start before going on 4-0 runs midway through the game. After two early attacking errors by Lindsay Krause, Cook turned to Landfair on the left.

The back-and-forth continued, but Nebraska used three straight kills to take the lead for good late in the set and held off the Bruins from then on. Jackson gave Nebraska set point with a slide kill, then a successful challenge from Cook gave Nebraska the final point.

The set included seven ties and five lead changes. Nebraska hit .317 and held UCLA to .216. Jackson and Murray led the way with four kills each, while Landfair added three on five shots.

“I'm just taking every single point as it is, just because nothing is guaranteed in Nebraska and it shouldn't be,” Landfair said. “So I just make sure that when I'm in, I just take advantage of it and coach always says, 'Be the game-changer.' So that's my attitude, just because I play for all these guys, I care about them a lot and I just want us to be as successful as possible. I just make sure I’m always focused and giving as much as I can at any given time.”

Landfair started the second set and delivered a kill in the first rally. The Huskers used a 4-0 run to build a 7-2 lead and never looked back, earning an easy win. Rodriguez went on a 7-0 run in the middle to extend a 21-8 lead.

Nebraska hit a blistering .611 for the entire set, holding UCLA to minus-.033 in a dominant performance.

“We played great and we played like that all last week,” Cook said. “One hundred percent (sideout), you can’t really get any better than that. But that is the sport of volleyball. The last game doesn't matter. The last point really doesn't matter. It’s about the next point, and tonight was a good example of that.”

Nebraska's offense continued to fire in the third set with a 6-2 start that grew to a 10-5 lead. UCLA briefly fought back to within three points with two kills, but the Huskers responded with a 7-2 run to regain control.

However, the Bruin's blocking and defense came to life late as Nebraska got into a deadlock and couldn't get out. UCLA grabbed 10 straight points and Kat Lutz took the lead. Nebraska had two timeouts during the run but couldn't find an answer. It only ended when Lutz missed her tenth serve and the Bruins immediately earned the sideout to extend the match to a fourth set.

“It was a complete loss of concentration,” Cook said. “We stopped passing the ball, stopped setting the middle, couldn't kill the ball. Bergen put up some tough sets to try and kill him. So we just lost all our rhythm and momentum. That means the game is over and we just move on. Hopefully we learn a really good lesson tonight.”

Nebraska hit over .400 two-thirds of the way through the set, but finished the game at .102. UCLA hit .170.

Nebraska had to quickly regroup as the fourth set became a battle with four lead changes and five ties, the last of which ended 18-18. UCLA missed its serve after making it, then Landfair delivered a kill to put the Huskers ahead by two points. The teams traded sideouts the rest of the way until Nebraska earned match point at 24-22. The Huskers then slammed the door with a block from Landfair and Jackson.

UCLA outscored Nebraska .209 to .176 with five more kills, but the Huskers benefited from six Bruin serving errors.

Nebraska gets a day of practice on Saturday before returning to the Devaney Center to host No. 20 USC on Sunday night. The Trojans topped Ohio State by five in their Big Ten opener Friday night in Los Angeles. Former Husker ally Batenhorst led USC with 15 kills

First serve is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT on the Big Ten Network.