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No. 13 Nebraska 3, (rv) Northwestern 0 Bob Devaney Sports Center Lincoln, Neb. Box Score | Box Score 
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LINCOLN, Neb. -- Facing its fourth ranked opponent in the last five matches, Northwestern was toppled by the 13th-ranked Nebraska Huskers at the Bob Devaney Sports Center Wednesday night, 3-0 (25-12, 25-22, 25-13).
Northwestern got off to a slow start in the first set and never recovered as Nebraska posted a 25-12 victory in the first frame. The Wildcats had a brief 2-1 lead thanks to a quick kill by Maddie Slater and a service error on the Huskers, but Nebraska took off on 10-1 run that gave it an 11-3 advantage. NU fought off a couple of set points late, but the deficit was too great to overcome and Meghan Haggerty finished off the frame with a kill to give her team a 25-12 triumph.
Chicago's Big Ten Team did not let its one-set deficit linger into the second game. The teams were trading points when the score was tied at 8-8 and the Wildcats began to take control. A serving error by Nebraska's Kadie Rolfzen, followed by back-to-back kills from Symone Abbott and Kayla Morin, gave Northwestern a three-point lead. The 'Cats pressed on and eventually pushed the lead to four points at 18-14, but the home team soon charged back.
Nebraska scored four straight points to knot the score at 18 points apiece before Northwestern's Katie Dutchman squashed the run with a kill off a feed from Taylor Tashima. The Huskers another three tallies in a row to take a 21-19 lead and prompt NU head coach Keylor Chan to call his final timeout of the stanza. The respite did the Wildcats a world of good because they rallied for three consecutive points of their own to regain the lead, 22-21. Senior Savannah Paffen came on for the first time right before Northwestern's final timeout and the veteran delivered two kills sandwiched around a Husker error to help her team and cause Nebraska's John Cook to use a timeout.
Cook's bunch responded well and closed the frame on a swift 4-0 run to win the second set, 25-22, and take a 2-0 lead into the locker room at the intermission.
After being held to only five kills in set one with seven errors, the Wildcats tripled their offensive output with 15 terminations in set two. They were, however, hampered by nine attacking errors on 46 attempts in the three-point loss.
The Huskers got off to another fast start in the third set by scoring the first seven points of the frame, leading to a quick timeout for the Wildcats. Nebraska scored the next point following the stoppage before Slater notched a kill to end the Cats' lengthy drought. Unfortunately, the early run proved costly to the Wildcats and they would come no closer than five points the rest of the way as Nebraska closed out the three-set win with a 25-13 victory in the final frame.
Northwestern, which entered play Wednesday hitting .265 on the season, collected only 28 kills and committed an equal amount of errors at Nebraska.
Northwestern will play the final match of its current four-match road trip on Saturday, Oct. 18 at Iowa. The Wildcats lead the all-time series, 40-26-1, and have won seven consecutive decisions against the Hawkeyes dating back to Nov. 21, 2009. The first serve is set for 7 p.m. at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
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