Ryan Hunter highlighted a terrific debut for the Nebraska volleyball freshman class as the Huskers beat Kansas 4-0 in a spring exhibition match Saturday night.
The win was Dani Busboom Kelly’s first public match at the Devaney Center as Nebraska’s head coach, and the fans showed out in support with an announced attendance of 8,592. The teams agreed to play at least four sets regardless of result in the first three, but Nebraska won all four — 25-20, 25-18, 25-21, 25-22.
“I really wasn’t nervous,” Busboom Kelly said of her debut. “It was more excited and just grateful to be here at a place where you can sell out a spring game, and it’s a big deal to people to get in. So it was more gratitude … I knew we’d play fairly well, just the way we’ve been practicing, and I knew they were excited to play an opponent.”
The team’s veteran middles were the only Huskers who played all four sets, and both terminated at a high level. However, it was Hunter, the freshman opposite hitter who shined the brightest in her debut — 13 months removed from a torn ACL.
“I feel great,” Hunter said. “I feel like I worked really, really hard to get to where I am right now, and I think I kind of proved out on the court today. I’m just really excited to be here … I wasn’t very nervous at all. I was kind of just really excited to be on the court with my sisters. I took it all in, took in all the emotions. The day before, I’m pretty sure, Andi just texted me, like, ‘just take in everything, take in all the emotions,’ and it was really helpful, because I feel like I did that, and it made playing volleyball and the experience 10 times better.”
Hunter played in the final three sets, totaling 11 kills on .563 hitting plus two blocks and two digs.
“I’m so proud of Ryan,” Andi Jackson said. “She has worked so hard to get to this point, especially coming off of an injury that she had, you would never be able to tell. I’m just really proud of her and her adversity, and she’s been an amazing teammate through the entire thing, which is, in my opinion, the coolest thing, because it’s one thing to be an amazing volleyball player, but it’s another thing to be an even more amazing person. So I’m really proud of her.”
Rebekah Allick and Jackson matched Hunter with 11 kills each, hitting .524 and .556, respectively. Setting the middles more has been a major focus so far in practice this spring, and they took advantage of that emphasis on Saturday.
“I think Bekka had an awesome match,” Busboom Kelly said. “She’s taking to heart that we need her to kill balls, and that’s going to be a big part of our offense. So to see her do that tonight was really encouraging.”
Harper Murray had a big fourth set to finish with 10 kills as Nebraska hit .285 for the match. She also debuted a new top-spin jump serve, accounting for one of Nebraska’s six aces.
“I think it just makes her a more aggressive player,” Busboom Kelly said. “When she went back to serve, I think in game two, I told her to float, because she also has a great float and a great yo-yo serve, a short serve, and I think she kind of was mad at me. I was glad that she wanted to keep top-spinning. So just an aggressiveness; she wants to score points, and that’s just another way for her to score more points.”
Kansas hit .214. Busboom Kelly rotated liberos between Laney Choboy and Olivia Mauch, with Keri Leimbach and Maisie Boesiger seeing the floor in a defensive specialist or serving sub role as well. Choboy posted a match-high 18 digs and an ace while Mauch added 12 digs plus six assists and an ace, with each playing in three sets.
As Busboom Kelly promised on Tuesday, she changed her lineups from set to set.
Bergen Reilly started the match at setter with Murray and Taylor Landfair on the left side, Skyler Pierce on the right, Jackson and Allick in the middle and Choboy at libero with Boesiger serving and playing in the back row for Hunter.
“That’s what I kind of wanted to do, and we talked as a staff about just starting the veterans,” Busboom Kelly said of the veteran starting group. “They earned it, and I’ve been saying all week that it’s been pretty even statistically, so why not let the returners start, because we knew we were going to try to play everybody almost as evenly as we could with making adjustments if we needed to.”
Nebraska hit .194 as Reilly’s connection with her pins was a little rocky, but the middles carried the load. Jackson and Allick had four kills apiece on a combined 11 errorless swings. Kansas hit .079 as Choboy recorded nine digs.
In the second set, Reilly played alongside Murray and freshman Teraya Sigler at outside, Hunter at opposite and Mauch at libero with Leimbach playing defensive specialist for Hunter.
Nebraska’s offense took off in set two as the pins joined the middle blocker party. Nebraska hit .379 behind four more kills on four swings from Jackson. Murray added four kills and Hunter chipped in three on five swings. Kansas hit .306 while Mauch recorded six digs and four assists.
In the third set, freshman Campbell Flynn made her debut at setter with Landfair and Sigler on the left side, Hunter on the right, Choboy at libero and Mauch at defensive specialist.
Game three was a shootout with Nebraska hitting .375 to Kansas’ .375. The Jayhawks only recorded one attack error.
Campbell racked up 15 assists as Nebraska recorded 19 kills. Sigler put down six kills on nine attacks after not taking a swing in the second set. Hunter also went six-for-six, showing off some craftiness to go with the power she displayed in set two.
“[She was] just super aggressive,” Busboom Kelly said of Hunter. “For a freshman to come out there and swing away, and some of those out-of-system swings were pretty insane. That sets the tone for her, like she’s going to go after it and go for kills. I told her — she didn’t play beach, so we did some training with her — your job is to block balls and kill balls and let’s not worry about anything else, and she did that tonight, so it’s good to see her do her job.”
In the fourth set, Hunter remained at setter with Murray and Pierce at outside hitter, Hunter at opposite, Mauch at libero, Choboy at defensive specialist for Hunter and Leimbach as a serving specialist for Pierce.
The Huskers fell behind 9-5 early after a 4-0 Jayhawk run, but Nebraska rallied to tie it at 12-12 and 14-14 before Mauch served a 5-0 run to put the Huskers in front 19-15. Kansas tied it again at 20-20, but Nebraska responded with a 4-0 run including a Leimbach ace then Murray capitalized on Nebraska’s third set point with her fifth kill of the frame.
Nebraska hit .156 and held Kansas to .118. The Huskers recorded four blocks in the fourth, matching their total from the first three sets combined.
“I thought it was a great spring match, really good competition,” Busboom Kelly said. “One of our biggest goals was to keep the level of play consistent no matter who was out there, and I thought we did that. I think it was a great way to showcase our team this early in the year.”
The match was the team’s first without John Cook on the bench, though he was in the building as a member of the broadcast team for Big Ten Network. Allick said it felt weird at first, but things settled in and started to feel natural midway through the first set.
“I was telling Olivia this, that being out there, going through technically old experiences but with a missing piece, without John Cook, like you’re used to him walking out, having his pep talk, and it’s like something feels like it’s missing,” Allick said. “So it was weird, and then it started to feel like home again. Honestly, it was just like being a freshman all over again. Knowing that I’m wrapping up my time here, I’m just trying to take it in, and so it felt really good to be back.”
The Huskers will get another week on the practice court before departing for Ord, Nebraska, to wrap up the spring with the team’s traditional traveling exhibition. Nebraska will take on South Dakota State on Saturday.
