MANHATTAN, Kan. — Perhaps it was some sort of pre-holiday hangover.

The No. 8 Nebraska volleyball team, which had been rolling through the month of November, avoided a Thanksgiving Eve meltdown Wednesday night with a frantic 32-30, 26-24, 25-22 victory at Kansas State.

The win was the Huskers' sixth straight sweep. Unlike the previous five, Nebraska didn't dominate.

But at this point in the year, with so much on the line heading into the NCAA tournament, Nebraska coach John Cook wasn't in the mood to complain.

“Sometimes you have to win ugly, and tonight was one of those examples,” Cook said. “When it really mattered, we made some plays. That was the highlight, but we were just out of sync all night.”

K-State is going through an uncharacteristically poor season. Still, Cook said, his players always have to treat their meetings with the Wildcats as a rivalry match, and the home team on Wednesday clearly came to play. Kansas State outblocked the Huskers 17-6 and limited NU to .197 attacking. Nebraska gave away 11 points on serving errors.

The Huskers somehow managed to win a wild first set — NU's longest of the season by far. K-State held leads of 11-4 and 23-9. Nebraska fought back and ultimately prevented the Wildcats from converting on all five of their set-point chances.

During one of K-State's shots at set point, the Huskers sent an attack long and out of bounds. The official, however, called a net violation on the Wildcats' Kelsey Chipman, giving NU the point instead. That call infuriated coach Suzie Fritz and the crowd of 2,241.

Nebraska finally won the set on back-to-back kills by Brooke Delano and Hannah Werth.

The second set was another nail-biter for the Huskers, then Nebraska enjoyed a bit more breathing room in set three and closed out the sweep.

“We got off to a pretty sloppy start, and it just seemed like we couldn't find a rhythm,” said Nebraska's Tara Mueller, who finished with 12 kills, 11 digs and two aces. “But we kept fighting. This can definitely be one of those teaching matches for us, and hopefully a win like this can help us in the (NCAA) tournament.”

Lindsey Licht added 15 kills for the Huskers. Werth had 13 digs and 13 kills, including nine putaways in the first set alone.

“I don't think we really did anything well tonight,” Cook said. “But we found a way to win. I knew this could be one of those trap matches, because K-State had nothing to lose.”

The Huskers wrap up the regular season by hosting Colorado on Saturday, the night they'll honor Kori Cooper, the team's only senior.

Nebraska (22-6, 15-4)..................32 26 25

At Kansas State (11-18, 5-14)................30 24 22

Nebraska (kills-aces-blocks): Anderson 4-0-1, Licht 15-0-1, Delano 6-0-2, Cooper 7-0-4, Mueller 12-2-0, Werth 13-0-3, Banwarth 0-1-0, Wilberger 0-0-0, Mancuso 0-0-0, Pendergast 0-0-0.

Kansas State (kills-aces-blocks): Donahue 2-0-0, Ludwig 6-0-5, Pacheco 3-0-3, Muff 5-0-6, Chisholm 10-0-3, Chipman 5-0-10, Mathewson 0-0-0, Murray 3-0-3, Fay 0-0-0, Kelican 0-0-0, Grot 0-0-0.

Set assists: Kansas State 32 (Pacheco 27); Nebraska 55 (Anderson 41, Banwarth 8, Mueller 4). A: 2,241.

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