The Huskers (3-1) struggled most in the third set. SMU (2-1) had a stretch where it won 10 of 11 rallies.

“We got punched in the mouth, and we let them keep punching us,” coach John Cook said on the Huskers Radio Network. “So I’m pretty disappointed in how we responded tonight.”

NU had won 128 straight matches against unranked teams since a 2017 loss to Northern Iowa in Omaha.

The historic win for SMU came in front of school-record 6,773 fans. SMU picked on Nebraska with its serving, much like Texas did last December in the NCAA title match. NU had 12 serving errors and just one ace. SMU had seven aces.

Naya Shime and Maya Tabron led the Mustangs with nine kills apiece. Middle blocker Natalie Foster had eight kills, hit .462 and served five aces. SMU had a .242 hitting percentage, and Nebraska hit just .171. Nebraska’s offense rarely had sustained success.

“We tipped way too many balls,” Cook said. “I’m over there telling them, ‘You guys, you got to hit the ball.’”

Transfer outside hitter Taylor Landfair — whose former school, Minnesota, upset No. 1 Texas Monday night — started for the first time in place of Lindsay Krause. By the second set, Krause was back in. Landfair finished with two kills with a .000 hitting percentage.

Merritt Beason led NU with nine kills but hit just .107. Krause had five kills and hit .250.

While not playing its best, Nebraska held a 20-15 lead in the first set before SMU ripped off a 6-0 run. After a tie at 23, SMU won the final two points on kills by Nnedi Okammor and Foster.

“I don’t know what the match looks like if we don’t take that first set,” third-year SMU head coach Sam Erger said on the ACC Network. “That’s when you get in their head a little bit and now it’s a match. That stretch was huge.”

Nebraska never led in the second set. Any progress was halted by numerous serving errors, including twice near the end of the set.

SMU had five ace serves in the second set and led the match 2-0. The Mustangs had the edge in kills (39-36), blocks (10-9) and digs (43-36).

“They’re going to have to step up,” Cook said. “Part of it is we think we’re Nebraska and we’re going to roll out here and smoke teams. (SMU) played very inspired tonight. They played great. They won all the long rallies, so that’s attitude and effort right there.”

SMU wanted a good showing in front of a large crowd. It did even better and got the win.

“We wanted to take advantage of that and show them what it’s all about and how fun it can be, and I think we did that,” Erger said. “It was a really cool environment. Everyone is chanting, ‘SMU’ and then ‘Go, Big Red.’ It was just really fun.

“I will remember this night for the rest of my life.”