Oftentimes, the stat sheet will tell you all you need to know about an athletic contest. The box score for No. 2 Nebraska volleyball’s five-set win over No. 10 Purdue on Friday was a different story.

The Boilermakers (12-4, 3-2 Big Ten) hit over .300 and out-blocked Nebraska by 10, yet the Huskers (15-1, 5-0) found a way to weather the onslaught and pull out a come-from-behind win in the fifth for a 25-22, 22-25, 23-25, 25-22, 17-15 victory in front of a juiced Devaney Center crowd.

“Welcome to Big Ten volleyball,” Coach John Cook said. “Purdue played great tonight. It was a heavyweight fight and it’s almost too bad somebody had to lose that one. They gave a great effort tonight. I was very impressed with Eva [Hudson] and Chloe [Chicoine]; they put on a show tonight. And I still don’t know quite how we won it, but we’re going to take it.”

Cook said the Huskers were out of sync offensive all night, as evidenced by their 31 attack errors, but Nebraska still hit .242 as Bergen Reilly dished out a career-high 60 assists to go with a match-high 17 digs.

“She’s just so consistent with her demeanor, and I think that’s huge for a setter,” Merritt Beason said of the sophomore setter. “It’s pretty hard to play with the setter when they’re up and down, because it’s like, ‘I don’t really know what to expect from you, I don’t know if you’re mad at me, I don’t know if you’re mad at yourself.’ But that’s what she does really well, and you kind of have to be that way when you’re touching the ball every single point. She’s just so calm and so steady throughout the highs and the lows, and I think that’s what makes her so special.

“Obviously we can talk about her sets, and we know those are great, but I think her demeanor is what helps us the most in moments like that, and just that demeanor also allows us as hitters to know that she has trust in us.”

Beason was on the receiving end of nearly a third of those assists, finishing with a team-high 22 kills on .278 hitting while leading the team with 54 attacks. Harper Murray added 17 kills on .209 hitting while logging 50 serve receive reps as the Boilermakers targeted her all night.

Andi Jackson returned to the lineup after missing last week’s matches with an undisclosed injury and dropped 14 kills on .429 hitting and four blocks. She terminated on 10 of her first 11 swings, forcing the Boilermakers to commit more defensive attention to her as the match went on. Fellow middle blocker Rebekah Allick added 10 kills on .333 hitting.

Lindsay Krause got the start, though she and Taylor Landfair rotated in and out as both struggled to terminate. Krause finished with four kills on .050 hitting while Landfair added six kills on .125. Cook said he’s still looking for somebody to “step up and show that they want it” at the OH1 spot.

“Lindsay was a little tentative tonight, Taylor was tentative,” Cook said. “And then Taylor did get a couple kills in game four, and she got one in game five, but you look at the combination, Taylor had six, Lindsay had 10 kills. Eva had 26 so we’ve got to get more production from that spot.”

Hudson (26 kills on .349 hitting) and Chicoine (22 kills on .327) were anything but tentative. The Huskers only recorded five stuff blocks all night while the dynamic outside duo for the Boilermakers had success tooling most of the night.

“They’re really good players,” Jackson said. “You’ve got to give credit where credit is due. They’re very smart, they had a lot of shots, and I think sometimes at this level, you’ll see outsides who really only have one shot, and once you can take that away from them, you kind of see them start to shut down. But they did a really good job being consistent and when we took something from them, then they found another way to will points.”

Purdue hit .311 but handed Nebraska 19 points from the service line via errors, allowing the Huskers to offset the gap in attack efficiency. The Huskers only missed seven serves and out-aced Purdue three to one.

“I think one thing that I’m really proud of this team is normally, if our defense isn’t going how it always is, and that’s something that we rely on, we kind of used to shut down,” Beason said. “That’s what happened at SMU, they were rolling offensively, and we were kind of like, ‘What do we do?’ But we didn’t do that tonight, and that’s what we’ve been working on.”

Both teams had a tough time terminating consistently against the other’s defense early in set one before settling in. The set featured nine ties and two lead changes with little separation until the end. Jackson took over down the stretch, terminating three times in four rallies to give the Huskers set point at 24-21. Purdue won the next point, but Reilly went to Beason out of the back row to finish it off.

Purdue out-hit Nebraska .324 to .282, but the Boilermakers had four service errors while Nebraska was clean from the line while notching an ace. Jackson went 5-for-5 in her return to the court.

“It was really fun,” Jackson said. “It honestly felt like I never left, just because when I was out, the team was so supportive, and even when I was in street clothes on the bench, I just felt so included because the team just does an amazing job making you feel surrounded with all of their love.”

The teams went back and forth early in set two until Purdue put together a 4-0 run — aided by three Nebraska errors — to pull ahead 12-8. The Boilermakers extended the lead out to six at 19-13 before the Huskers began to chip away, scoring four straight to pull within two.

However, Chicoine dropped the ball in the middle of the donut for a kill, then back-to-back Nebraska attack errors extended the lead back to five. Purdue traded sideouts to earn set point at 24-19. The Huskers ripped off three straight kills from there before Hudson closed it out.

Purdue continued to operate at a high level offensively, hitting .278. Nebraska hit .146 with eight errors in the set. Murray led the way with five kills on 10 errorless swings, but the rest of the team only mustered nine kills on 31 attacks. Landfair replaced Krause midway through the set and produced one kill and two errors on five attacks.

Purdue used a 4-0 run to break an early tie again in set three, earning a 9-5 advantage as Nebraska continued to splutter offensively. The Huskers rallied to tie it up at five different times before surging ahead for a 20-18 lead with a 5-1 run including four kills.

However, Purdue responded with its own 5-1 run including back-to-back Jackson attack errors (her first of the match) to close out the set and take a 2-1 lead.

Purdue hit .364 in the set as its outsides continued to dominate. Nebraska hit .282 behind five kills from Beason.

After Krause played the third set, Landfair was back in the lineup for the fourth. The Huskers got off to a great start, jumping out to an 8-4 lead. They pushed the advantage to five a couple of times, including at 17-12. The Boilermakers recorded blocks on three straight rallies to trim the lead to two, but Landfair and Beason both stepped up with big kills to put the Huskers back in control.

Purdue saved a few set points down the stretch, but Beason closed it out with a back-row kill out of a timeout. Cook opted to give the senior captain more turns in the back row against the Boilermakers than she’s been playing, and the move paid dividends.

“We’ve been working on it, preparing for this match, because we knew it’d be a tight match, and we’re just trying to find some more kills,” Cook said. “What they were doing is they were trapping Andi with two blockers, letting our left sides go one-on-one, and those guys were struggling tonight. So there was an open lane down the middle, and we probably hit for a huge number on our back-row attack tonight. We worked hard on it this week because we knew we were going to need it tonight.”

Nebraska won despite hitting just .114 in the set. Beason led the way with another five kills. Purdue hit .147 and misfired five times from the service line.

Purdue served into the net again to open the fifth but followed it up with a 3-0 run to take the lead. Nebraska tied it up nine times before finally breaking through with a Jackson slide kill for a 13-12 lead.

Purdue turned the tables with a 3-1 run to earn a match point, triggering a Nebraska timeout. Cook subbed Beason in for Laney Choboy in the back row a rotation early to add her firepower and the move paid off as she immediately tied it up with a back-row kill that blasted off the Purdue libero’s face.

The Huskers scored a point off a net violation on the next rally then Reilly went back to Beason in the front row to close out the match.

“She got some big kills,” Cook said. “She was struggling early, struggling blocking, struggling serving, but she showed why she’s a first-team All-American. She made some huge plays for us there. That last kill was a great kill, and that’s what you expect from your first-teamers.”

Purdue did not commit an attack error in the fifth, hitting .481, but the Boilermakers misfired four times from the service line and Nebraska hit .458.

The Huskers will face a quick turnaround as Rutgers (5-11, 0-5) will visit the Devaney Center Saturday night. Kenzie Dyrstad, a Papillion-La Vista South graduate, is leading the Scarlet Knights in digs at 2.93 per set.

First serve is set for 7 p.m. and the match will be available on Big Ten Plus.

LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) – The judge overseeing the case on Nebraska’s medical marijuana petitions ruled Friday that the matter will proceed to trial.

In a Zoom hearing Friday morning, Judge Susan Strong overruled the motion to dismiss a cross-claim brought forward by Secretary of State Bob Evnen. She said she was skeptical the cross-claim could stand on its own but would leave questions about standing to the appellate courts.

If passed by voters in November as they stand now, one ballot initiative would allow patients to purchase medical marijuana and the other would allow businesses to sell it.

“We have kind of a burden-shifting situation,” Judge Strong said, noting that good arguments were presented on both sides.

And while an extension was sought for issues that weren’t the subject of the original filing, more allegations have come to light that should allow amending of the filings, the judge said.

Certainly some signatures will be thrown out, she said, such as the ones confirmed to be fraudulent. But there may be other situations where the defendants can prove a sufficient number of signatures were collected legally.

But first, the plaintiff and the Secretary of State have to prove the petitions included many signatures that were wrongly obtained — and that intentional fraud was committed, not just clerical errors. If they can’t prove enough signatures are in question that the ballot initiatives would not have been certified for inclusion on the ballot, then the case stops there.

If they do prove it, then it falls to the defendants to prove they obtained enough legal signatures — that circulators and petitions were genuine — to rightly put the matter on Nebraska’s November ballot.

If both arguments are presented and there’s not clear way to tell whether there was widespread wrongdoing, Judge Strong said the decision will default to assume fraud under the precedent of Barkley v. Pool, a case argued in front of the Nebraska Supreme Court in 1919 over women’s suffrage.

Should the trial move into a second phase, the burden of proof would fall on the defendant to prove that the signatures on the petitions were valid.

That phase likely would be post-election, Judge Strong said.

“That timeline is extremely tight,” she said.

The state’s attorneys said they were supportive of the idea of splitting the case, but the defense said they wanted to talk to their clients about whether to split the case once the formal proposal is filed, so they can see how the state envisions that split.

Regardless, the judge said she is leaning toward doing so, saying that it should benefit the defense as she sees their tasks as daunting.

“I don’t know how you’re going to concentrate on responding to the plaintiff and the Secretary of State at the same time you’re trying to prove genuineness of signatures. I mean, it sounds like an overwhelming task,” she said.

Noting that the deadlines may need to be fluid given the nature and urgency of the case, the judge granted deadlines to move to Monday for disclosure of exhibits and witnesses and Tuesday for deposition notices.

“Everything has to be somewhat fluid so that I give everybody a fair shake here,” she said at the conclusion of Friday’s hearing.

According to the state’s attorneys, Evnen stands by the work done during the petition certification process.

“It’s clear to us, as we say in our brief, that Sec. Evnen intends to use this case kind of in a broader effort to undermine the initiative process. And we don’t say that lightly. We know that is a bold statement,” he said. “But it’s justified here because he’s advancing a position in this case that has never been adopted by a single court in Nebraska and as far as we can tell has never been adopted by a single court in the entire country.”

He said that Evnen wants to “balloon” the theory, saying that any mistakes found on certain signatures collected by a petition circulator should not invalidate all 200 pages of signatures collected by that person. The claim moves the dispute from 17,000 to 100,000 signatures.

“It just makes little sense to us that they would come to the court and say, ‘Judge, as a result of notary malfeasance, we want you to strike the will of 100,000 Nebraskans who validly signed this petition.’”

He said the Nebraska AG’s office is conflating “malfeasance” with “fraud” — that malfeasance is a technicality and the plaintiffs aren’t fulfilling the claim of fraud. He also pointed out that notaries have no interaction with the voter, agreeing that if there’s a bad signature by a voter, it should be stricken.

Zachary Viglianco with the AG’s office said that “serious and significant tangible evidence of fraud” has been uncovered in the investigation, noting that two have been officially charged.

“There have been, since the Secretary’s certification, serious and significant tangible evidence of fraud that was uncovered in a investigation in conjunction with local officials that has cast a cloud of certainty over the validity of the signatures — many of the signatures, thousands of the signatures that have been submitted,” he said.

He said that counter to the defense arguments, the AG’s office has been focused on serious issues with petition validity, not just any mistake for any reason. The crossclaim is focused on serious irregularities, overt fraud, and malfeasance by notaries — criminal activity, not just sloppiness and mistakes.

Evnen has said publicly that he’s not going to take unilateral actions like walking back the certification. Instead, the state is asking the court to look at significant regularities and say whether there are a sufficient number of signatures for the initiatives to legally appear on the ballot.

But Gutman said that Evnen himself would be the one to provide the remedy in the case.

“Secretary of State Bob Evnen is essentially suing himself,” he said.

Defense attorneys said Friday that they hadn’t yet received any notification from the state about which petition pages they allege are fraudulent — that they haven’t been able to examine the evidence. Instead, they said, they were provided a list of all petitions provided from each notary and a general statement saying all are tainted with fraud.

The attorneys from the AG’s office, however, countered that the entirety of those petitions were precisely those in question, and said those files had been sent out. Those files were so big that even the judge commented on how unwieldy they were, stating that her computer only managed to get about 12% through the file over the span of five or six hours.

• Notary Shari Lawlor related to petitions submitted in approximately 45 counties.
• Notary Shannon Coryell related to petitions submitted in approximately 44 counties.
• Notary Patricia Petersen related to petitions submitted in approximately 54 counties.
• Notary Kimberly Bowling-Martin related to petitions submitted in approximately 41 counties.
• Notary Crista Eggers related to petitions submitted in approximately 28 counties.
• Notary Garrett Connely related to petitions submitted in approximately 45 counties.
• Notary Marcie Reed related to petitions in submitted in approximately 31 counties.
• Petitioner Edward Matthews related to petitions submitted in two counties.
• Peititioner Tommy Davis related to petitions submitted in two counties.
• Petitioner Linda Middleton related to petitions submitted in three counties

The state says the evidence allegedly impacts petitions collected in at least 71 of Nebraska’s 93 counties:

Read the documents

—

Get the latest breaking news updates delivered to your inbox. Sign up for 6 News email alerts.

Copyright 2024 WOWT. All rights reserved.

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – The Nebraska Community Blood Bank has issued an urgent call for blood donors to support hospitals impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, as well as to meet ongoing needs in the local region.

Helene and Milton have resulted in at least 200 deaths combined, and the number continues to rise.

Blood collections across the United States are reportedly facing significant disruption due to the ongoing weather emergencies impacting the Southeast. Severe weather has forced the closure of numerous blood centers, canceled scheduled blood drives, and restricted donor access in affected areas.

NCBB believes these disruptions are expected to persist throughout the coming weeks and months, exacerbating the nation’s existing blood supply challenges.

Currently, NCBB is providing blood products to help support the national blood supply and is ready to provide additional aid as needed in the coming days and weeks.

To help meet the heightened need, NCBB is calling on local residents to donate and help ensure a stable supply for patients in need during this critical time.

“We’re calling on all eligible Nebraskans to help ensure a stable blood supply to support hospitals that rely on us, both locally and nationally, so our neighbors in the Southeast can focus on recovering from these storms without the burden of blood shortages. There’s no substitute for blood, and the need is critical, now more than ever,” Cheryl Warholoski, Executive Director at Nebraska Community Blood Bank, said.

Blood donors can give every 56 days, and platelet donors can give twice per month. To view current eligibility guidelines or make an appointment, visit ncbb.org or call 402-486-9414.

Click here to subscribe to our 10/11 NOW daily digest and breaking news alerts delivered straight to your email inbox.

Copyright 2024 KOLN. All rights reserved.