(OMAHA, Ne)—Omaha came into Tuesday’s match with a big head of steam after the comeback victory over Albany to clinch the Omaha Challenge last weekend. They took on a Kansas team with a very big front line, and it caused the Mavs trouble most of the evening. Kansas controlled the pace for the first two sets, and squeaked it out in the third to sweep the Mavs and hand Omaha their first loss of the season.
The first set saw the Mavericks creating a lot of self-inflicting wounds. They would finish the set with 11 attack errors, to the Jayhawks two. This brought Omaha’s hitting percentage down to -.133 for the first set, and it helped propel Kansas to a 25-11 win.
The second set saw much less errors on the Mavericks part, but the combination of Gracie Van Driel and her 13 kills in the match, along with the towering duo of Kailea Carrier and Rachel Hickman in the front line, made it a difficult task for Omaha to stop Kansas on the attacking end. Kansas would finish with 17 kills and an efficient .395 hitting percentage in set two, and go up 2-0 with a 25-16 win.
The Mavericks came to life in set three. They lead by as many as four points, leading 13-9 at one point. Both teams traded point-after-point down the stretch. A service error from Hickman made it a 24-23 Kansas advantage with the door open for Omaha—but errors came back to haunt the Mavs from set one. A follow-up service error from Erin Williams gave Kansas the match point, and the Jayhawks completed the sweep.
Kansas finished with a .333 hitting percentage, and only had nine attack errors in the match. Sara Nielsen finished with 29 assists, and Allie Nelson and Hickman finished with 12 digs a piece. Jaclyn Taylor had 22 assists, and Sadie Limback tallied 11 kills for Omaha. The Mavs move to 3-1 on the season, and are next in action on Thursday and Friday as they play in the K-State Invitational.
