Nebraska would go on to win 25-21 and seal the match with a six point win in the following game.
"Bad call. Really bad call. Really bad time," said Kansas State head coach Suzie Fritz curtly when asked about the ruling . "One call doesn't win or lose matches. That's how I feel about it. We had a chance to win it again. It was a blown call, but it was the right call. He should have blown the whistle before she pursued it. We could have easily won the point as easily as we lost it."
The Wildcats (10-2, 0-1 Big 12) hardly looked like the same team after the call.
After dropping the first game, K-State rallied in the second after opening on a 5-2 run. The Wildcats would hold the lead for the entire game, using an 11-4 run midway through to lead by as much as eight before pulling out the win.
In the third game, Nebraska (9-0, 1-0) jumped out to a quick lead before K-State rallied to tie and eventually take a late 20-18 lead. The Cornhuskers mounted a comeback of their own, however, opening up on a 6-2 run to take a 23-21 lead.
Then came the controversy.
"It's not good when you have a bad call and have to get on track again," said Rita Liliom who finished with 11 kills and 10 digs for the Wildcats, "but we should not let it affect our play. I think we stayed in it for a while, but I think at that point we gave it away."
The fourth game looked nothing like the previous two as Nebraska opened up on a 11-4 run and led by as many as 10 midway through. K-State rallied towards the end, going on an 8-3 run of its own, but it came too little, too late.
"You have to stay in it the whole time," Liliom said. "They're not going to just give out points. You have to earn it every single time. It's not like you can make a service error and come back. You can't do it, because they won't let you. We have to play our game, and if we do that we'll win, but it just wasn't tonight."
Natalya Korobkova led K-State with 15 kills and 11 digs on the night, while Lauren Mathewson and Lesilie Townsend posted 17 and 11 digs respectively.
Jordan Larson led Nebraska, which was projected to finish second in the Big 12 after losing four all-Americans from last year's team, with 21 kills and 10 digs. The Cornhuskers out hit the Wildcats .220 to .117 on the night.
"I think a lot of people felt (Nebraska) wasn't going to be good this year," Fritz said. "A lot of people thought that they lost four all-Americans and that they'd be down, but they've done a really good job. I don't think they're down at all. I think they're equally as good as a lot of the teams they've had."
Double dipping
Despite a conflict between Wednesday's match and the Wildcat's 7 p.m. kickoff against Louisville, a season-high 2,876 people packed Ahearn until the matchup's conclusion at nearly 9 p.m.
After the game, a few hundred fans stuck around to watch the remainder of the game on a projector mounted on the court.
"We were really pleasantly surprised that all the K-Staters came out. I'm just disappointed that we didn't give them a little better show."
Avoiding the broom
Although the Wildcats lost, they joined No. 5 USC as the only other team not to get swept by Nebraska in their nine games this season.
Among the other opponents swept by the Cornhuskers include sixth-ranked Stanford and 19th-ranked Cal Poly.
Kansas State fell to 3-75 against Nebraska all-time and 1-34 at home.
