No. 1 Nebraska volleyball junior Harper Murray is coming off one of her finest weeks as a Husker, earning co-Big Ten Player of the Week based on her performances against Washington and at No. 12 Purdue.
She averaged 4.67 kills per set on .519 hitting with 12 digs, five blocks and three aces in a pair of sweeps to earn the award for the first time in her career. You’d have to go all the way back to the 2023 season to find Nebraska’s previous winner (Merritt Beason). Nebraska’s balanced attack can make it difficult to earn individual accolades, but Murray’s 16 kills on .640 hitting in a top-15 road win certainly caught the conference’s attention.
“It feels great,” Murray said. “I feel like the Big Ten does a great job of recognizing people all across the conference, and I’m grateful that they saw that in me the past week. I don’t know, that Tate McCrae concert must have fired something up in me for sure, but I’m just grateful, and I’m really glad that they recognize that. I feel like we’ve all been putting in the work, so I feel like eventually it’s all going to show through for everyone, and I hope everyone can get honored the same way.”
In the first set alone, Murray and Andi Jackson combined for 15 kills on 20 swings without an error. Senior Allie Sczech was on the bench at the time (before checking in during the second set) and had a great view of the show the two juniors put on.
“It’s awesome,” Sczech said. “It’s good to see all their hard work transfer over too. They’ve been working so hard in the gym, and I just see it every day. It’s really cool to be able to watch them go out there and just kind of let it play out. I love being their biggest hype man. They do so much for the team, and I want to see them win so bad.”
Murray’s numbers took a slight jump from her first year (in which she earned Big Ten Freshman of the Year) to her second, but this season, she’s reached another level. The 6-foot-2 pin is averaging 3.72 kills per set on .314 hitting, which is the third-highest percentage among left-side hitters in the Big Ten (behind only Wisconsin’s Mimi Colyer and Madison Quest among qualifiers).
“I think it just comes with maturity,” Murray said of her growth. “I’ve played college volleyball for three years now, and you grow a lot mentally, physically. I feel like my IQ on the court has grown a lot, and that’s not something you realize in the moment, but looking back to my games my freshman year, my sophomore year, I’m seeing the growth in myself, and I think it just comes with how I view the game, and being able to slow it down in my head.”
Murray said teams aren’t targeting her as much in serve receive this season, and that’s allowed her to really lock in on attacking and playing defense. The result has been improved consistency in her all-around game as a six-rotation player.
“Her passing numbers are fantastic — she barely gets served because she’s passing really well — and so I think she’s taken a lot of ownership in that part of her game,” Coach Dani Busboom Kelly said. “That’s probably the toughest thing to do as a six-rotation player, is be consistent with serve receive, and then it makes everything else feel a little bit easier.
“I think she’s just been able to deal with different sets and use the whole court at a really high level, whether she’s roll-shotting or tooling the block or hitting hard cross. She’s just really improved, and now I think the back row has come into play for her, and she realizes that it can be such a huge part of her game. We’re using it more in system or more when things are going well, instead of just when things are not going well.”
Murray will look to keep the good vibes rolling this week as the Huskers (16-0, 6-0 Big Ten) return to her home state of Michigan for a pair of matches. Nebraska will visit East Lansing to face the Spartans on Friday before continuing to Ann Arbor for a rematch with the Wolverines (12-4, 2-4 Big Ten) on Sunday.
Harper Murray warms up before Nebraska’s match against Washington on Friday, October 10, 2025, in Lincoln, Nebraska. Photo by Brandon Tiedemann.
Murray, an Ann Arbor native and the daughter of a former Michigan football player in the late Vada Murray, grew up with season tickets for many Wolverine athletics teams. She attended basketball games at Crisler with her mom and her bother growing up as well as a few of the volleyball team’s big matches when her older sister was playing for the Wolverines.
“Crisler is a great place, and I love all the facilities that they have there,” Murray said. “It’s super homey for me, and it’s fun to go around there and just see everything, and I hope my teammates can get a little taste of what I grew up with.”
Murray said she’s looking forward to seeing friends and family during the trip, and the team is planning to eat dinner at her house on Saturday night.
“I love going to players’ houses on the road, so if we’re close to anybody, I think it breaks up the trip, it’s fun, it gives everybody, including the staff, a different perspective of a player, seeing where they grew up and how they grew up,” Busboom Kelly said. “I think it just creates a little bit of a homey atmosphere, and I’ve never been to a player’s house and left thinking that wasn’t a great time, so I’m excited for that, and I think our team will be very appreciative of a longer road trip, being able to break it up and enjoy a home instead of a hotel.”
Sunday’s game at Crysler is already sold out, while Michigan State is calling upon fans to show and help the program break its attendance record of 8,789 at the Breslin Center.
“I think it’s a testament to the fan base that Nebraska has,” Murray said. “I know we say this all the time, but our fans travel really well. We saw what happened for football in Maryland this past weekend, so we all know that the fans travel well and that we have a lot of fans around the country.
“I think it’s exciting for Michigan, too, to have that many people at their match against us, and I hope for their program that it continues to grow. I have a lot of connections back to that program with a lot of my friends there, so I’m excited to see them again, and it’s always fun playing in front of a big crowd. I’m just grateful that we can bring our fans to Ann Arbor.”
Setting attendance records on the road is a continuing trend for Nebraska this season. While Busboom Kelly was well-acquainted with the Nebraska fans before returning to Lincoln, she said she’s still been surprised by the amount of support her team has seen on the road.
“It’s not that the games are sold out, because I feel like I was expecting that,” Busboom Kelly said. “It’s more the people that are crazy about Nebraska volleyball and the support we have. It’s not just volleyball people that enjoy watching any volleyball, it’s true Husker fans, and to see them there and know people traveled really far to come watch us on the road, it’s unique. There’s nowhere else in the country that’s like that, I can guarantee that. It’s such a blessing, and it just makes road games almost as fun as home games.”
Nebraska swept Michigan in Lincoln on Sept. 24. Friday will be the Huskers’ first look at the Michigan State, though the Spartans will make the return trip to Lincoln next Friday. The proximity of the four matches to each other makes the scouting process a bit easier for the Huskers.
“It’s kind of nice, because you can focus on you, and we can do things that we’re really just working on ourselves versus focusing on an opponent,” Busboom Kelly said. “Sometimes in the season, you forget to take that time on yourself when you’re going from opponent to opponent to opponent. These next two weeks again, playing Michigan and Michigan State so close together, we can go, ‘Oh yeah, I remember that from two weeks ago,’ so we don’t have to spend as much time. So it’ll be a good week of training.”
The Spartans are 14-2 including 4-2 in Big Ten play under first-year coach Kristen Kelsay, a Michigan State alumna. They’re third in the conference in opponent hitting (.175), second in aces per game (1.95) and eighth in hitting percentage (.263).
“I watched a little bit of film, not a ton, but they’re feeling good,” Busboom Kelly said on Tuesday. “I’m not surprised, because Kristen Kelsay is a great person, and a really good coach, and I am not surprised at all that that team is playing very hard for her.”
Kelsay has had to deal with a rotating cast of characters as only two Spartans have started all 16 matches, and only four others have even played in each of them. Michigan State’s leading attacker, junior Taylah Holdem, is averaging 4.16 kills per set on .276 hitting, though she’s missed half the season thus far. Holdem made her Big Ten season debut in the Spartans’ 3-0 win against No. 22 Indiana on Sunday, though she only played in one set and didn’t take a swing.
Nebraska has already seen Skutt Catholic grad Morgan Burke, the starting setter in the Wolverines’ 6-2, but Michigan State also features a native Nebraskan at setter in Malayah Long. The redshirt freshman won a state title at Lincoln Southwest a couple years ago before redshirting at Marquette last season. She transferred to Michigan State after a coaching change in Milwaukee and is averaging 10.28 assists per set.
“There are 74 Nebraska players playing Division I, which is crazy, many in starting positions at Power Five schools,” Busboom Kelly said. “I think it’s just a lot of pride in that the state is a volleyball state, through and through and from the highest level to the smallest level.”
First serve on Friday is set for 6 p.m. CT. Saturday’s match will start at 1 p.m. Both will be available on Big Ten Plus.
