Rebekah Allick started her senior season with a bang, earning “player of the match” honors from her coach after the Nebraska volleyball Red-White Scrimmage at the Devaney Center on Saturday.
The 6-foot-4 middle blocker racked up a match-high 16 kills on .433 hitting and five blocks. She also received a seal of approval from her teammates, who voted her “Lifter of the Year” for her effort in the weight room throughout the offseason.
“It kind of feels like a fairy tale, honestly,” Allick said. “You pray for moments like that to work out. But my faith, it’s not about having a perfect day, just kind of riding with the whatever comes, and so it’s nice when you get those little gifts along the way. I’m very grateful.”
Director of Olympic Sports Performance Brian Kmitta presented the award between the first and second sets, and Allick’s excitement was apparent. The award caught her by surprise, and she said she wanted to cry.
“I take a lot of those kinds of accolades very seriously,” Allick said. “John [Cook] had an EDMF belt whenever he was here, and to me, those are celebrating the intangibles, and that’s what lifter of the year is. I think it’s more than just how much can you squat, how fast can you run? What kind of culture and vibe do you bring to the gym, especially on days we don’t want to be there? Also, my teammates voted for that, and so that feels really good, knowing that they wanted to see me holding that. So it meant a lot.”
The coaches aren’t in the weight room during offseason lifts, and Dani Busboom Kelly said she hadn’t asked Kmitta for details about how things were going. However, when Allick took to the practice court, Busboom Kelly saw a difference.
“I just knew this preseason she was at another level, and I think her competitive spirit is where it needs to be, and to see that get rewarded, and of course, it’s a lifting award, but it’s still a vote, and to see that get awarded by her teammates is pretty special. This means a lot to her in her senior year. I know she wants this to be her best year, not just as a player, but also as a teammate. So I’m really excited for her. I knew she was going to be very, very excited about that.”
Freshman middle blocker Kenna Cogill spoke highly of Allick’s work ethic and called her a role model for everyone on the team.
“It feels good to be appreciated, it does, especially on things that I hold dear to me,” Allick said. “I go hard in practice and the weight room, typically, the places that people will take for granted. Not in our program, but the average athlete will go through the motions in those spaces, and I know that’s where I can get that extra inch in a match. And so for that to be recognized was really cool.”
While Allick stole the show individually, each of the 17 players on the roster showed something during the match. Rather than rolling with a more traditional “A-side versus B-side” matchup, Busboom Kelly had the lineups change from set to set, with one side running a single-setter 6-2 to get all three opposite hitters significant playing time.
Allick called the scrimmage this year a debut for the 2025 Huskers, a chance to show who they are and what they’ve been working on.
“Volleyball-wise, we’re really scrappy, and the other thing, mentally, I feel like we’re also really hard on ourselves,” Allick said. “I think you kind of saw it with some of our athletes, and it goes to show just how bad we want it, but also just how great we want to be. And so there were really cool moments to see different people pull themselves out of those spaces and go take big swings again, but I think it also showed our talent.
“Harper [Murray] is ripping her serve, and even if it doesn’t connect, I think it also shows like there is a lot of raw potential with our team … I think we’re incredibly talented, very competitive and just love the game of volleyball.”
The Red team, featuring Campbell Flynn at setter and Laney Choboy at libero, won the first three sets before the White team, featuring Bergen Reilly at setter and Olivia Mauch at libero, won the fourth set, the only one that wasn’t close. Everyone else rotated between the teams. Allick was the only player who went 4-0 on the day, leading the Red team in the first three sets before switching to White for the final game.
In addition to Allick, two other middles hit above .400 in Cogill (10 kills on .421) and Andi Jackson (nine kills on .412), continuing a trend from the spring matches of heavy middle involvement with high efficiency. However, between the two teams, the overall hitting percentage was only .189 — a reflection of both the Huskers’ defense and their emphasis on aggressive offense.
“I think our defense is very good, but we were taking risks,” Busboom Kelly said. “Harper was hitting like .400 and she hit two balls out in a row, but they were hard. We’re challenging our team to rip it, not tip it, so whether it’s in or out right now, I want them to get comfortable going after it.”
Reilly finished with 41 assists, 15 digs, four kills and one block for the White team. Flynn totaled 31 assists, 11 digs and an ace for the White.
“It was really good overall,” Busboom Kelly said of the setting. “I thought both Campbell and Bergen were solid and played great. I thought they both served great, played great defense. They’re both studs. I’ve been staying it all year, I truly believe we have the best setter group in the country.”
The first two sets followed a similar script with the White team leading most of the way before the Red rallied to steal the game late.
White led 20-16 in the first set before a 9-3 finish by the Red including two kills and a block assist from Allick. Sigler added an ace and teamed up with Allick for the block. White contributed three attack errors and two service errors down the stretch.
White led 21-16 in the second set as well before a 9-2 Red finish. Cogill sparked the rally with three kills while Allick chipped in two more, including set point.
The third set saw more back-and-forth play with 16 ties and four lead changes (after 10 ties and four lead changes in the first two sets combined), but the same team pulled through again as the Red finished with a 3-0 run. Two White attack errors sandwiched an Allick kill.
Busboom Kelly decided before the match that the Huskers would play at least four sets, and White took advantage of the extra game to break through and get on the board. The set saw six ties through the first 24 rallies before White surged ahead with an 11-2 run including a 4-0 serving stint from Mauch and a 5-0 spurt with Sigler at the line. Allick gave her squad set point with a kill then Pierce finished it off two points later.
Overall, Busboom Kelly said she got what she needed out of the scrimmage.
“Of course, it’d be nice to walk away from here and be like, ‘Oh, this was obvious, so-and-so should start,’ or ‘This person played great under pressure,’” Busboom Kelly said. “But we wanted to have a lot of even teams and have a competitive game, and we did that, and we saw some players step up in big moments, which was great. But it also showed a few things we have to work on, and that hopefully will be better in the alumni match next week.”
The Huskers will look to fine-tune their serve and pass game and blocking in practice this week before they suit up again to take on a squad of former Huskers at the program’s first Alumni Match next Saturday.
