Nebraska volleyball is operating without its home this spring as the Devaney Center undergoes renovations, but that has led to an opportunity for a true homecoming for one of their own as the Huskers head to Sioux Falls, S.D., on Saturday for an exhibition against Iowa State at the Sanford Pentagon.
Senior setter Bergen Reilly is from Sioux Falls, where she starred for O’Gorman High School.
“I’m really excited,” Reilly said. “It’s going to be awesome. There are a lot of people that have wanted to see me for the last three years, and haven’t been able to come down to Lincoln, because it’s pretty hard for me to get tickets for people. I’m really excited just that so many friends and family get to come and I get to see them, and I have a lot of memories at the Pentagon, so I feel like that’ll be kind of fun to just go through some of those again.”
Coach Dani Busboom Kelly said the Pentagon, with its history of hosting events, made perfect sense as a destination with the Huskers unable to play at home, especially with Sioux Falls being Reilly’s hometown and South Dakota a “great recruiting base” for the Huskers.
“I’d kind of heard rumblings of it, but I didn’t really know if I should believe it or not,” Reilly said. “Once I heard I was I was really excited, and we get to go back in noncon to Brookings [to face South Dakota State]. I think it’s just it’s super cool that volleyball is growing so much in South Dakota. We’re a little behind Nebraska, but it’s cool that we can kind of go and try and help move that along a little bit.
“I think it sold out in like three minutes or something on Ticketmaster. I know a lot of my friends try to get tickets and couldn’t, so that’s really cool to see, because I don’t know five years ago if that would have happened. I’m glad that we can try and help move the trend a little bit in South Dakota too.”
Reilly’s parents, Brendan and Tiffany, are planning to host the team for dinner on Friday night, though they had to rent out a venue because their basement is also undergoing renovation.
“They’re hosting dinner Friday, and they got a suite at the Pentagon because they just knew that so many people would want to come,” Reilly said. “So they’ve been scrambling a little bit, but they’re really excited too. Again, there are so many close people in my life that haven’t gotten to see me play in person for Nebraska, so they’re really excited to get to share that opportunity.”
In addition to playing in front of her family and friends, Reilly is also excited to show her teammates her hometown.
“I’d say it’s similar to Lincoln,” the huskers’ captain said. “Everybody that I’ve heard that goes there loves it, and so I’m excited for them to just get to see it. We’re staying in a new part of downtown. It’s really nice area, and the Pentagon is definitely a little different. It looks really old, but it’s actually pretty new. So it’s fun to just go through and see kind of the history that they tried to put in there.”
On the court, Busboom Kelly said everyone is healthy and everyone will play Saturday against the Cyclones, who went 23-8 and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2025.
“This is spring, so it’s sort of like a glorified practice, and we get to not only play against the opponent, but in front of fans and have that added pressure and a different vibe,” Busboom Kelly said. “I think that’s what this team needs, and when we’re ready for things, we need to continue to push them and not hold them back. I think we’re ready to play. We have a deep roster, so we’re not going to be overworking anybody on Saturday. Everybody’s going to get to play, and I think it’ll be really fun at a great arena, and I know the people in Sioux Falls are pretty fired up for it.”
The match will feature a pair of Nebraska volleyball alumni on opposing benches as former Husker All-American Christy Johnson-Lynch has led the Cyclones since 2005. She’s guided Iowa State to 16 NCAA Tournaments during her tenure, including two Elite Eights.
“I actually got to coach against Christy one time when I was an assistant, because John Cook wasn’t here,” Busboom Kelly said. “He was dealing with family matters, so I was the interim head coach for one game. But other than that, I haven’t coached against Christy, so this will be one of the first times. Very excited for that. She’s somebody that I grew up idolizing and watching, and I remember watching her play like it was yesterday, so that’s pretty neat.”
Iowa State returned four players from last year’s squad that started double-digit matches, including 5-foot-10 outside hitter Goolsby, who led the Cyclones with 3.22 kills per set as a freshman.
The Heritage Court at the Sanford Pentagon features a seating capacity of 3,250 for volleyball. Reilly said that in addition to playing club and high school games at the Pentagon, she watched Sioux Falls Skyforce basketball games there when she was young, and she’s excited to play in front of a full house herself.
“I know that the crowd is on top of you, especially when it gets pretty full,” Reilly said. “It’s not a huge arena, but it gets really loud when it’s full. The basketball team’s gotten to go there, so I’ve talked to Cale [Jacobsen] about it a little bit. I’m really excited to get to experience that as a college player, because it only gets so full for high school games, but I’m really excited to see it just jam-packed and people right on top of you.”
First serve is set for 1 p.m. CT on Big Ten Network.
Saturday is only the first of three exhibitions this spring, however. Nebraska will also play against Creighton at D.J. Sokol Arena in Omaha on April 17 and against Northern Colorado at the Chicoine Center in Chadron, Neb., on April 25. Under Cook, Nebraska typically played one public spring scrimmage in a Nebraska town outside the Lincoln and Omaha metro areas, but Busboom Kelly has been a bit more aggressive in her scheduling.
“We’re allowed four, and I think the rules are going to change after this season, so we want to have as many as we’re allowed,” Busboom Kelly said. “It’s just finding the opponents and the places to play when we don’t have a gym, and you’re also in the 500-mile rule. We wanted to balance that while also giving them a few weekends where they had Saturday and Sunday off. I think it’s great balance; we’re playing three great opponents, three different places, so it should be challenging and fun, and also getting some rest time.”
Reilly said the matches break up what can often be a monotonous time on the calendar and provide a bit of extra motivation and excitement for the players.
“I think it’s really fun to get to train for something,” Reilly said. “Sometimes, in previous years, spring could get kind of long because you’re just training day after day and not really training for something, so we’re really excited we get to play some great teams. I think we’re all pretty pumped to get to go to three different places and play some good teams.”
