A year and a half ago, Italian opposite hitter Virginia Adriano decided to leave everything she knew behind to venture across the Atlantic Ocean and compete at the college level with Nebraska volleyball.
Her journey has been filled with ups and downs, but midway through her second season with the Huskers, Adriano has settled into her life in the United States and is playing the best volleyball of her career.
Her success in year two starts off the court, where she’s adjusted to a new culture while being away from her family.
“I feel more comfortable and more confident, more confident in my ability to speak English, and also just being more comfortable around people, so people that maybe I don’t know, that I’m meeting for the first time,” Adriano said during a recent press conference. “I’m more comfortable here too because I’ve always been very stressed in front of cameras and all these things … It’s definitely going well. I’m enjoying everything that I get to do.”
With a program that has a following and resources like Nebraska does, that includes a lot.
“Obviously, I’m blessed that I get to do this, not only coming to another country and experiencing a different thing in every single aspect you could think, but specifically doing it at the best level possible with the best people, the best staff, the best people that we work with, people that we see, our fans and everything is just so cool, to get to call myself part of this.”
That all hit home for Adriano when she walked into the lounge outside the renovated locker room. There, on the wall, is a photo from last year — with Adriano herself included. Seeing that gave her a sense of belonging.
Nebraska opposite Virginia Adriano (3) attacks as a Southern California player goes up for a block during an NCAA college volleyball match, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026, in Lincoln, Neb. Photo by Eli Larson.
“I just never thought I would be in one of the pictures that is going to be permanently on the walls for I don’t know how many years long,” Adriano said. “For all the people that were here before me, all the people that made history, their group that made the record in 2023, it just made me super emotional because I get to literally be on the wall for a part of this this place for as long as they would want to keep that picture there. I don’t know, it just made me truly stand on my feet in that moment and be like, ‘OK, I’m not just the foreigner now anymore, just the new player, the oldest freshman possible, just coming here from whatever, and so I’m truly part of this.’
“It makes me feel part of a family, and I obviously know that not having my family here, I have to make it my family in some way because I have to find the comfort that I don’t have with my actual family here, and I find it very easy to get to that point.”
Nebraska fans have done their part to make Adriano feel welcome as well, including one who brought an Italian flag to the UCLA match. Adriano didn’t see that flag at the time, but she appreciates the sentiment.
“I love that,” she said. “I’ve seen a couple times, there’s a couple, they have a flag, it’s like a small flag, and it says, “Forza grande rosso,” which is a literal translation of “Go Big Red,” and I love seeing that because … it’s not like an actual, correct thing in Italian, but it’s super nice because it just means that they’re trying to give support.”
Her head coach has noticed the shift in Adriano this season now that she has a year in Lincoln under her belt.
“The way she comes into practice every day — she understands the culture, she understands Nebraska, now she gets the expectations and why it’s such a big deal to play here,” Dani Busboom Kelly said. “I just think she seems to be more comfortable and happier.
“We have an Italian word of the day where she teaches everybody the word of the day, which is kind of fun, so she’s just inserting herself and her culture where she thinks is necessary. Then on the court, I think it continues to translate, maybe not numbers-wise, but the confidence she plays with and the next-play mentality that has been a big difference from last season.”
Virginia Adriano (3) celebrates a kill against the New Mexico Lobos during a college volleyball match on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026, in Lincoln, Neb. Photo by John S. Peterson.
Adriano has been honest and open about her struggles with self-confidence during her Nebraska career. She’s had to fight getting lost in her own head when things have gone awry. Adriano hasn’t fully solved that problem just yet, but she’s certainly come a long way.
“We talk a lot about this in the performance meetings that we have, trying to come out of the struggles mentally and then, if you play free and if you if you play happy, you play better, and at the same time if you play better you play more free and more happy. So finding that balance is definitely not easy, speaking for me personally. It’s kind of hard, and I can’t really tell if I’ve found it yet when I’m actually in a moment of struggle.
“But definitely all the meetings that we’re having and getting to try that in practice, and maybe even trying it in the game if I’m struggling and I don’t get pulled out, for example, and I get a second chance, so I can I can try to improve that and even fix my behavior if I’m not having a good behavior, if I’m internalizing and I’m shutting down and I’m not giving to my teammates. Being able to fix that, that can also help me to play better instantly. I see that it’s working, and I see that it’s something that is going to work in the future and in the long run with all the games that we have.”
Adriano is putting in just as much work on the practice court as well. She’s working with position coach Jaylen Reyes to change her footwork on her approach to put her in better attacking positions and is also continuing to develop a different blocking technique than the one she learned in Italy.
“I’m definitely working a lot on hitting since being an opposite is pretty much the only thing I do, and definitely working a lot on my blocking,” Adriano said. “I have always not been the best blocker ever out there. I know that I’m improving, and definitely I’m doing so much better than last year. I’m very aware that I have so much more that I can learn, so much more that I can do much better.”
Adriano said she’s constantly watching her teammates and learning as much as she can from them, looking for ways to improve her own game and to give more back to the team. That devotion has paid off recently as the 6-foot-5 opposite hitter has tallied double-digit kills in three straight matches, equaling her double-figure total from the first 50 matches of her career. She’s put up 11, 10 and 13 kills in wins against Purdue (3-1), UCLA (3-0) and USC (3-0), averaging 3.4 kills per set on .404 hitting during that streak.
“Just a much better mindset and understanding her role, what she needs to do to help this team win, and kind of just diving into that,” Busboom Kelly said. “That’s being great out of system, getting some good touches on the block. We don’t need her to kill every ball. I think once she was at peace with not having to be perfect or put up these numbers, that’s when you actually do [put up big numbers], when you stop worrying about it and just think about how can I help us win today.”
The Purdue and UCLA matches featured similar patterns with Adriano getting off to a good start, struggling in the second set then turning it around for a strong finish, showcasing the mental growth she discussed. Sophomore Teraya Sigler called Adriano’s performance against the Boilermakers “resilient.”
Nebraska Cornhusker opposite Virginia Adriano (3) spikes the ball against the Missouri Tigers in the second set during a college volleyball match on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026, in Lincoln, Neb. Photo by John S. Peterson.
“A couple swings don’t define you as an attacker and it can be hard obviously because we have to understand that these people are scouting us, and we’re scouting them, and so them making adjustments, them having to go towards tendencies or whatever is just normal,” Sigler said. “And so I think from her it’s just being a leader in that aspect of she never shied away from swinging, and I think that’s just a kudos to her and kudos to even Bergen [Reilly] to keep setting her and to out-of-system with Liv [Mauch] to keep setting her, that she’s capable of, no matter the past swings, no matter the past errors, she’s capable of doing hard things for us, and so I just think she was super resilient.”
Adriano credited Reilly for sticking with her through her points of struggle, and the setter looked for her early and often with 17 of her 36 attacks in the first sets against UCLA and USC. She had five kills on eight swings in the first set against the Bruins and six kills on nine attacks against the Trojans.
“She’s been doing really well,” Reilly said of feeding Adriano early. “We’ve had a lot of conversations these past couple weeks of just ironing out our connection, and she just has been really confident, and that makes me really confident in her too. It’s just cool to see how it’s paying off for her. I think she’s worked really hard. She changed some stuff on her footwork, and she’s been really intentional with that. She just took it and went with it, so we’re all really proud of her.”
The points Adriano puts on the board or valuable in their own right, but the impact of the sophomore terminating at a high clip extends far beyond her individual production because of the way it impacts the way other teams can defend. Busboom Kelly said the opposite terminating makes the Huskers “feel pretty unstoppable, especially in big moments, and maybe not on perfect sets or passes.”
“She opens up space for me,” said Harper Murray, who had 14 kills on .462 hitting against the Trojans opposite of Adriano and her 13 kills. “Bergen does a great job of already keeping everything pretty balanced, but when Virginia’s on a roll, it makes our jobs a lot easier because the blockers don’t know what to do. That’s all you can ask for.
“Even if she wasn’t playing her best, she’s still going to try and she’s still going to try and make new errors, and that’s something we talk about a lot: don’t make the same error twice. I think that we’ve all worked on that a lot. But like I said, when she’s on a roll and when she’s being productive out there, it helps the rest of us and it opens up space for all of us.”
Adriano has already made her mark on Nebraska — one that will hang in the locker room for some time — and she’ll look to continue her red-hot attacking on the road as the 21-0 and top-ranked Huskers visit Michigan for week six of Big Ten play.
