No. 1 Nebraska volleyball survived its first true test of the season, sweeping No. 20 Baylor in front another sold-out John Cook Arena Friday night.
Baylor (5-2) is the first team to reach the red zone against the Huskers this season, and the Bears did so in all three sets. Even so, Nebraska executed down the stretch to secure a 25-20, 25-22, 26-24 win at the Husker Invitational to improve to 6-0.
The Cornhuskers were playing for more than just a result on Friday as they participated in the “Go Gold” initiative. In honor of Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month, Nebraska welcomed children battling cancer to the match and wore gold shirts during warmups to spread the message of Angels Among Us, an organization that provides financial and emotional support to pediatric cancer families in Nebraska.
Nebraska Cornhuskers warming up before taking on the Baylor Bears. Photo by John S. Peterson.
“It was super cool and just obviously heartbreaking that those kids have to go through that,” Bergen Reilly said. “It just really puts everything into perspective of yeah, we want to win volleyball games, but there’s so much more to life than that and there are a lot of people fighting way harder battles than a volleyball game. It’s really awesome that a couple of those kids got to come and just experience that, and I hope that they got to kind of take their mind off of what they’re going through for a couple hours.
“They’re all stronger than any of us are, and it’s really awesome that we can honor that a little bit.”
Friday held special meaning for Harper Murray after connecting with Sami Ketelsen, a Skutt Catholic (Neb.) High School student battling metastatic osteosarcoma. Ketelsen is among the children who attended the match with Angels Among Us.
“I’ve gotten to get really close with Sami [Ketelsen] and her family … I got to talk to her a little bit a few weeks ago,” Murray said. “Like Bergen said, there are so many battles that people are fighting, and I know me having a connection to cancer, it means a lot to me to have that person and have Sami there because I think we can relate on a certain level. I know I’m not going through what she is, but to a certain extent, we can relate on some things.
“I’m just really grateful that we got to honor them, and I know we have such a big platform and we have such a big audience that I feel like this is just going to help their foundation and help the girls and boys that are a part of it, make them feel more loved and supported. What I hope that comes out of it is just those kids feel more love and support than they ever have.”
In the match itself, Baylor pushed the Huskers more than any team had this season, but Dani Busboom Kelly relied on her four seniors to lead the team through adversity.
“We were great, super composed,” the head coach said. “Our seniors led the charge there, and I thought they were leading, and it just never felt like it was really in danger of losing, just by the body language and the way that we’re communicating. Even our bench was just giving a super confident vibe.”
Manaia Ogbechie spikes the ball against Baylor Bear outside hitter Bailey Warren (2). Photo by John S. Peterson.
Reilly tallied a season-high 41 assists, adding nine digs and three aces while setting Nebraska to a .315 clip. Murray notched her third double-digit-kills outing of the season with 12 while adding seven digs.
Manaia Ogbechie picked up where she left off on Thursday with a new career high, matching Murray with 12 kills on 21 errorless swings (.571 hitting).
“She’s just a terminator, and she’s ready to go up and get a kill at any point,” Reilly said of the sophomore. “She can move it around. She can hit just about any set. I think she saved us in game two, and she got us out of a lot of rotations in game three too. We all saw it last year, even when she would come in periodically. She, pretty much every time, came in and got a kill, so it’s cool to see just the consistency growing this year.”
Virginia Adriano put forth another strong effort with eight kills on .385 hitting and three blocks while Andi Jackson and Teraya Sigler chipped in seven kills apiece.
Defensively, Nebraska held Baylor to .235 hitting as Olivia Mauch and Laney Choboy tallied 13 digs apiece, leading Nebraska to a 50-36 edge in team digs.
“They were great,” Busboom Kelly said. “We’re going to rely on them to have those performances all the time. If we want to be where we want to be in December, they’re going to have to play that way consistently.”
Choboy also served two aces as Busboom Kelly called her number to serve from the start of the match. She had been alternating with Adriano, but Busboom Kelly said she earned the right to handle that responsibility based on how she’s been serving lately. Mauch and Jackson notched on ace apiece as well as Nebraska finished with seven in total.
First Set
The first set was a stalemate most of the way with neither side leading by more than two until late. Nine ties and two lead changes set the tone before Nebraska managed to take control with a pair of runs.
A 4-1 spurt including a pair of aces gave Nebraska the first three-point lead of the night at 17-14, then after Baylor pulled within one, the Huskers responded with three straight, the last point featuring an incredible defensive player from second-year defensive specialist Keri Leimbach, in as a serving sub.
Keri Leimbach and Bergen Reilly with the extra effort to keep the play alive for @HuskerVB 🔥 pic.twitter.com/73VeDkgCCF
— Big Ten Volleyball (@B1GVolleyball) September 12, 2026
“That was awesome,” Reilly said of Leimbach’s save. “We talked in the locker room just about how Keri and Campbell [Flynn] both came in and just stuck their serves, made some plays. Keri helped us pull away in the [first] set, and Campbell made some really great serves there in the third. We talk about everybody being ready and going into every game preparing like you’re a starter, and it’s something to say it; it’s another thing to go do it. I think that just proved everybody’s ready to go in at any time and not just go in and be a body. They’re ready to go in and make plays.”
Six straight sideouts followed before Sigler, playing on her birthday, broke the chain with consecutive kills to give Nebraska set point. Murray misfired on her serve, but Reilly closed it out on the next rally with a kill off a feed from Sigler.
Reilly ran a balanced offense, dishing out 13 assists (plus a game-high four digs and two aces) as Nebraska hit .444. Murray led the way with four kills, one of five attackers with multiple terminations. Baylor hit .192 as Nebraska out-dug the Bears 11 to five.
Second Set
A strong serve from Reilly set up Ogbechie for an easy kill to start the third set, but Baylor responded with a 4-0 run. The Bears pushed their lead to four at 7-3 before Ogbechie terminated for the sideout, triggering a 5-0 run featuring Mauch at the service line.
Baylor ended the run with a kill to tie it up at 8-all, but the Huskers responded with back-to-back kills from Jackson and Murray and an ace from Choboy. The Bears pulled within one a few times, but a 5-1 spurt capped by another Choboy ace gave the Huskers the cushion they needed to close out the set, with Ogbechie scoring the final kill.
Nebraska hit .412 behind six kills on nine swings from Ogbechie and another 14 assists from Reilly. The Huskers needed every one of their 16 kills as Baylor star Ksenia Rakhmanchik went off for nine kills after the Huskers held her to two on .000 hitting in the first. As a team, Baylor hit .359.
Third Set
The tight contest continued to the final point with the Bears putting the Huskers in a position they had not yet experienced in 2026.
The teams went back and forth early in the set until Nebraska surged ahead 11-7 with a 7-1 run that included two kills and two block assists from Adriano. The Huskers extended that lead to 15-10 at the media timeout, but the Bears regrouped and began chipping away at the deficit once play resumed.
Andi Jackson spikes the ball against Baylor Bear middle blocker Victoria Davis (7). Photo by John S. Peterson.
Baylor pulled within one twice then ripped off a 4-0 run including two more kills from Rakhmanchik to jump ahead 23-22 — two points shy of becoming the first team to take a set off Nebraska this season. Busboom Kelly called a timeout, and when the players returned to the court, Nebraska’s seniors took over.
“All of us knew from that point on, we were not losing that game,” Reilly said. “Laney came into the huddle after Baylor got up 23-22 and just said, ‘Hey, this is what we trained for.’ I think just all of us stepping up, it’s not just one of us; it’s all four of us just instilling confidence in those that maybe haven’t been in those games. So it was really cool to see.”
First, Reilly went to Jackson on a quick set, though the Bears kept the ball off the floor. So Reilly went right back to her, and Baylor had no shot of digging the second attempt as she smashed it into the court. Then on the next point, Reilly went to Murray out of the back row for another emphatic kill to put the Huskers back in front for match point.
Victoria Davis tied it up at 24-all with a kill, but Ogbechie fired right back to put Nebraska back in front then Reilly finished it off herself with an ace.
Rakhmanchik tallied seven more kills, but the Bears only hit .163 as a team and Nebraska’s balance won out. Murray and Adriano had four kills apiece as Nebraska hit .170. The Huskers totaled 24 digs in the frame, including nine from Choboy.
Up Next
Nebraska will close out the tournament on Saturday afternoon against Georgia Tech, who bounced back from a 3-0 loss to the Bears on Thursday to sweep New Mexico on Friday.
The Yellow Jackets beat the Lobos 25-13, 25-16, 25-17 to improve to 7-1. Alida Bennour led the way with 14 kills on .417 hitting and three aces. Bianca Garibaldi added 12 kills on .579 hitting while Magda Kobaidze contributed 12 kills on 524 hitting and eight digs. Baylor’s leading attacker on the season, Lauren Bieleski, chipped in eight kills on .467 hitting and 10 digs.
Heloise Saores dished out 44 assists and 10 digs while setting the Yellow Jackets to a .448 hitting percentage as Georgia Tech’s defense held New Mexico to .141.
First serve on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. CT, televised locally on Nebraska Public Media and streamed on Big Ten Plus.
