LINCOLN — If this indeed is a make-or-break week for the Nebraska volleyball team, step one couldn’t have gone any better.

The No. 10 Huskers made it look easy Wednesday night, barely breaking a sweat while swatting aside Missouri 25-19, 25-16, 25-16. Nebraska hit a season-best .451, tied a season-high with eight service aces and swept aside the Tigers in a mere 74 minutes.

Nebraska now will focus its attention on an anticipated rematch Saturday at No. 8 Iowa State, which beat the Huskers last month in Lincoln. Things didn’t come as easily for Iowa State on Wednesday — but coach Christy Johnson-Lynch surely wasn’t about to complain.

In what goes down as the biggest win in program history, at least for now, the surging Cyclones outlasted second-ranked Texas 22-25, 25-22, 25-15, 20-25, 15-12 at Hilton Coliseum. Iowa State (20-3, 12-2 Big 12) became the first team to beat the Longhorns (18-1, 13-1) this season.

The Huskers will spend the next two days gearing up for their second shot at Iowa State, but you can’t blame coach John Cook and his players for wanting to savor this win over Mizzou. The Huskers have insisted all along that they aren’t too far from putting the pieces together, and Wednesday’s victory looked like their most complete effort of 2009.

“This was a good example of our team hitting on all cylinders,” Cook said. “This is really the first time I think all season where I felt like our team played Nebraska volleyball. I thought we were relentless, we turned it on at the end of games, we served really tough, and we didn’t give up runs of points.”

Against a scrappy Missouri team that could’ve been a big thorn in NU’s side, Cook said junior setter Sydney Anderson might have played her best match yet as a Husker. Anderson totaled 43 assists, and none of Nebraska’s primary attackers hit below .400.

Brooke Delano had 10 kills and swung for a career-high .833 clip — the sixth most efficient individual match in program history. Hannah Werth hit .429 and finished with 12 kills, while Tara Mueller added 11 kills on .400 hitting. Lindsey Licht and Kori Cooper had seven kills apiece, and the Huskers’ eight attack errors marked a new season low.

“That’s what I’ve been working for,” Anderson said. “But I can’t take all the credit — it was my hitters. They’re going up there and swinging away, and obviously (our success) all starts with our passing.”

Kayla Banwarth had 15 digs to help NU finish with an impressive 44-31 edge. And the Huskers got three aces from freshman Gina Mancuso and two more from both Anderson and Werth. NU’s two service errors also tied a season low.

Paola Ampudia starred for Missouri, as she did in the teams’ October meeting, a four-set NU win in Columbia, Mo. Ampudia had 22 kills on .319 hitting, while Omaha Gross graduate Catie Wilson had nine kills and hit .474. But in the end, Missouri had no shot at outslugging Nebraska.

“It just felt like everyone was working together, and this is a great match to build off,” said Mueller, who only had one attack error on 25 swings. “We need to remember this (in the future) when we might be down a few points — just how much fun we were having and how we were fighting.”

Saturday’s NU-ISU match — which is expected to draw a massive crowd to the Cyclones’ home arena — is set for an 8 p.m. start.

Iowa State, which hadn’t defeated a top-five team before this season, now has wins over then-No. 5 Nebraska and second-ranked Texas. Iowa State’s victory Wednesday night will make it tough for the Huskers to finish higher than third in the league, but that doesn’t concern Cook any longer.

“It was nice just to see our kids have fun tonight,” he said, “and play as well as they do in practice. We’re going to need them to do that again Saturday. We’re going to be in a situation where we need our kids to raise their level of play, and we’re excited about that as coaches.

“We’re not worried about winning the Big 12 right now. We’re worried about getting this team ready for the postseason.”

@Agate 10.9 bold:Missouri (15-10, 6-7) 19 16 16

Nebraska (17-6, 10-4) 25 25 25

Missouri (kills-aces-blocks): Wang-Francisco 1-0-0, Brimmage 0-0-0, Medrano 4-0-1, Ampudia 22-0-2, Armendariz 0-0-0, Wilson 9-0-1, Vann 0-0-0, Hantouli 0-0-2, Klein 3-0-1, Lopez 0-0-0.

Nebraska (kills-aces-blocks): Anderson 2-2-2, Licht 7-0-4, Delano 10-0-4, Cooper 7-0-2, Mueller 11-1-1, Werth 12-2-0, Banwarth 0-0-0, Mancuso 0-3-0.

Set assists: Missouri 38 (Wang-Francisco 35); Nebraska 47 (Anderson 43). A--4,044.

Contact the writer:

444-1207, chad.purcell@owh.com

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