It’s been business as usual for Nebraska volleyball this spring — except for one thing. The Huskers don’t have access to their practice gym.
With renovations going on at the Devaney Center, the Huskers has had to make use of an off-site practice facility to get their indoor practices is as they prepare for their upcoming exhibition tour.
“Honestly, being over here has been fine,” Coach Dani Busboom Kelly said after Wednesday’s practice. “There are some things facility-wise that we have to get used to, but I don’t think it’s bad to go through a little adversity and changes and kind of have to be out of our comfort zone for the spring. I’s been working out really well, and I feel like we’re getting a lot of work done.”
The Huskers brought a TeraFlex court with them to their alternate practice gym, so the players are happy to go to work.
“It’s been pretty seamless,” Bergen Reilly said. “We always talk about great ones adjust; Coach [John Cook] always said that. It’s not Devaney, but a volleyball court’s a volleyball court, and it’s been kind of good for us just to have to go through that stuff. We obviously know what the end goal is too; we get a pretty cool locker room and 1,500 more seats, so we’re excited for that …
“It’s been fun, and it almost feels a little more like relaxing. We still come in and we compete every day, but I don’t know, it’s kind of the vibes. Just the vibes in this gym make it a little bit different.”
With their normal locker room hangout spot off limits during constructions, the Huskers have made a concentrated effort share meals together to foster the offseason bonding they view as pivotal to in-season success.
With a year back in Lincoln and working with her assistants under her belt, Busboom Kelly said it has been easier to focus on the volleyball and streamline their work, regardless of the location. She also feels more comfortable pushing the players even further now that she’s established a deeper connection with them.
“I think it’s definitely helped, just having a year under our belt, and it’s helped Dani too,” Reilly said. “I’ve talked to her about that; she definitely had some growing pains, and we did too. It’s a big change, but she’s feeling a lot more comfortable, too, and really coaching us hard, and I think that’s really good for us.”
Beyond the normal fundamentals, Busboom Kelly said the points of emphasis this offseason have been hitting the ball harder and serving more aggressively.
“I think those are probably our two biggest areas where we feel like we can get better from last year, and then I think just acclimating the freshmen,” Busboom Kelly added. “They’ve all been doing great. They’ve raised the level of our gym, so getting them up to speed has been a lot of fun. It’s a short spring for us when we only have four and a half weeks of indoor, so we’ve got to hit the ground running.”
All three of Nebraska’s 2026 commits, middle blocker Keoni Williams and outside hitters Gabby DiVita and Jayden Robinson, enrolled at the semester break and went through the beach season, giving Busboom Kelly her full 16-player roster to work with this spring. Reilly said the newcomers are really fun, they want to learn and they bring a fieriness to the practice gym.
“Being able to hop in and out of drills quickly, that’s really important, especially in the spring when we’re limited on time, practicing in the morning, we have people leaving for class,” Busboom Kelly said of incorporating the freshmen. “We don’t have time to explain every single thrill, so getting them acclimated, the relationship piece is huge in volleyball. We say it all the time, we’re social sport, and they’ve got to get to know each other and know how they play and have some confidence communicating on the court.”
Nebraska’s four seniors, Reilly included, have set the tone this spring with hopes of finally breaking through this fall in their final season with the Huskers.
“We all know that we haven’t finished how we wanted to the last three years, so we’ve talked a lot about just making sure we’re on the same page, and we all want to have no regrets going out of this year,” Reilly said. “We have such a great bond, us four, and we’ve been here together the last four years, so we’re really excited to go out and compete one more year together, and just hopefully get it done this year.”
Andi Jackson, one of those four seniors, has one of the starting middle blocker spots wrapped up. The other is wide open following the graduation of Rebekah Allick, and the competition has been fierce between sophomore Manaia Ogbechie, redshirt freshman Kenna Cogill and the true freshman Williams.
“We have three awesome middles that are looking to replace that spot, and it’ll probably be all three of them at different times in the season,” Busboom Kelly said. “Bekka’s irreplaceable from a lot of standpoints, but I’m really confident in those three that they’re going to bring their own style of play to the court. They’re all three different and they have different strengths, so I’m just very excited to see them live, because when they’re going up against each other all the time, they can make each other look very average, and against other teams they all look like rock stars.”
Busboom Kelly will get that chance on Saturday when the Huskers face Iowa State in an exhibition match at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, the first of three spring matches this season.
