No. 1 Nebraska volleyball returned to action in impressive fashion Thursday night, sweeping its way through the first Spikes Under the Lights exhibition tournament at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The Cornhuskers beat No. 17 Florida and No. 12 SMU to earn the right to hoist the big check at the end of the night, taking home a total of $350,000 for the program ($200,000 for participating and another $150,000 for winning). Matches were best of three with sets to 21.
For the Huskers, the event lived up to the hype, even for the seniors who played inside a football stadium for the second time in their careers.
“When we walked out for serve and pass, everyone’s jaws were just on the floor,” Andi Jackson said. “You couldn’t even believe that we get to play in this venue, and it’s so massive and it’s so cool and the lights everywhere and then running out and you have the fire and stuff, it was awesome … Getting to see everything actually come true, because we’ve heard about it and we’ve seen it on social media, but actually being here now, it’s very surreal.”
The Cornhuskers run out onto the field at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, for the Spikes Under the Lights exhibition tournament. Photo by Katie Trout.
The Huskers got better and better with each set, playing their best volleyball in the final game of the event to put an exclamation point on their championship. They narrowly beat Florida, then after an extended layoff, they blew out SMU in the event’s nightcap. The Mustangs swept No. 10 Penn State 24-22, 21-18 in the other semifinal.
Bergen Reilly said the coolest part of the night for the players was the growth from the first match to the second.
“There were definitely some game one jitters,” Reilly said. “Even though it was exhibition, it felt very real, and I think just seeing how well we adapted and learned and grew from that first game to that second game just, that was kind of the best part for me, and I think that was the best part for a lot of us.”
The Huskers won’t face the exact circumstances they did on Thursday again this season with the stadium setting, the layoff, the short concert before the championship and everything else that surrounded the event, but the Huskers hope the experience will help prepare them to adjust to anything that comes their way moving forward.
“You just never know what’s going to come at you,” Reilly said. “There might be injuries on your side, injuries on the other side, people might be playing that we didn’t scout for, all that. You just have to go out and adjust. At the end of the day, we’re playing volleyball, regardless of the venue or how many people are there, if there’s money on the line, if it’s exhibition, it’s volleyball, and we practice it every day.
“So just reminding ourselves that yeah, there might be weird circumstances, there might be a lot of outside noise going on, but we’re going to go out and we’re going to play our game of volleyball.”
Championship
No. 1 Nebraska 2, No. 11 SMU 0 (25-12, 25-11)
Nebraska ran away from the Mustangs early in both sets, allowing Coach Dani Busboom Kelly to go deep into her bench. Fourteen players saw the floor and nine of them scored a kill as Nebraska hit .339 and held SMU to .068.
Teraya Sigler used a strong second set to record a match-high seven kills on .200 hitting and five digs. After a rough outing in the semifinal, Harper Murray came alive with six kills on .333 hitting, five digs and an ace in the final. Reilly dished out 21 assists and Olivia Mauch, who started at libero in both matches, recorded a match-high seven digs plus an ace.
After BYU transfer Suli Davis lit Penn State up with 11 kills on .364 hitting, the Huskers held her to five kills on .045 hitting, and the rest of the Mustangs managed just five more kills combined.
Between the two matches, Nebraska finished with five aces — from five different players — to just six errors, and in the second match the Huskers held the Mustangs to a 43.9% sideout rate. Especially considering the setting, Busboom Kelly was pleased with what she saw from the service line after making it a major emphasis for the team throughout the offseason.
“We have some players that we want to go back there and rip it, but we’ve talked a lot about making sure we hit our zones and we’re serving aggressively at the right spots, and then we can mix up depths,” Busboom Kelly said. “The first game we didn’t do a great job, but the second game, I think just being a little more used to the venue, we did much better job. So it’s great to see and I think it builds confidence. Now we know we can take control of the game from the service line.”
First Set
Nebraska showed no rust from the nearly two-hour layoff, jumping all over the Mustangs out of the gate. The Huskers raced out to a 12-2 lead and never looked back. The start included a 6-0 run with Virginia Adriano at the service line featuring an ace and an overpass that set up a smash from Jackson.
SMU trimmed the lead to six a couple times midway through, but the Huskers cruised to the finish from there for a 1-0 lead.
Nebraska only hit .160 behind Murray’s three kills, but the Mustangs totaled six attack errors and five service errors, hitting minus-.087 to contribute more points to Nebraska total than the Huskers did.
Dallas native and freshman middle blocker Keoni Williams checked in late in the set and terminated on her only swing. Skyler Pierce also subbed in for set point, her first appearance.
Second Set
SMU settled in for the second set, tying the match three times in the first 12 rallies. However, Pierce checked back in for Murray and provided a spark, notching three kills on four swings to help the Huskers create a little separation heading into the media timeout at 11-8.
The stoppage didn’t slow the Huskers’ momentum any as Nebraska tacked on two more kills and an ace from Murray to extend the lead to six, and they rolled to victory from there. Busboom Kelly went deep into her bench as Kenna Cogill and Ryan Hunter each recorded a kill down the stretch. Cogill teamed up with Reilly for a block on match point as well.
“That’s one of the goals, especially early on, is to see what people can do,” Busboom Kelly said of her subs making an impact. “And without redshirts, we want to use everybody and kind of build that confidence for certain moments … It was awesome, and this is an experience. I don’t know if we’ll be back in a football stadium in these guys’ careers, so the fact that everybody got to step on the court, and I think every single person touched the ball at least once, I think that’s a win and a really fun moment in your athletic career for these guys.”
Nebraska hit .484 as Sigler racked up five kills on 10 swings, and the Huskers held SMU to .238.
Semifinal
No. 1 Nebraska 2, No. 17 Forida 0 (21-19, 21-18)
The Huskers and Gators got the party started, and Busboom Kelly gave her team’s performance a B-, calling it “pretty ugly” in the first set but smoother in the second. The match was competitive throughout, with 18 ties and 10 lead changes between the two abbreviated sets. However, the Huskers stepped their game up in the clutch to complete the sweep.
Teraya Sigler (11) takes a swing against Florida in the Spikes Under the Lights exhibition tournament. The sophomore led Nebraska in kills in both matches. Photo by Katie Trout.
“It was so fun,” Jackson said. “It’s definitely a different environment. Everything’s very fast-paced. There’s a lot happening at once. All the lights, all the fans, but it’s an awesome environment, and it was a super fun game. Florida’s a really good team. They are super scrappy, super competitive, so I think that they were a great way — I know it’s an exhibition match, but a great way to open the season.”
Nebraska out-hit Florida .220 to .169 and out-blocked the Gators seven to three.
Sigler led the Huskers with six kills on .222 hitting in her debut as a starting six-rotation outside while Jackson (.571 hitting) and Adriano (.364) added five kills apiece. Reilly totaled 19 assists, four digs, two blocks, two kills on two attacks and an ace. Mauch led everyone with nine digs.
Busboom Kelly said on the Nebraska Volleyball Coach’s Show Tuesday that the Huskers didn’t need Murray to be great offensively every match in order to be successful, and her team proved that Thursday as the first-team All-American finished with just two kills and five errors, hitting minus-.231.
However, Busboom Kelly and Jackson both said the stadium lights had something to do with the setters struggling to connect with the hitters on both sides as they were lower than when the teams had practiced earlier and a bit blinding at times.
First Set
Reilly talked about how much of a focus serving was for her personally and for the team during the offseason, and she showed that by firing an ace on her first serve, sparking a 5-0 run to give the Huskers a 10-7 lead.
Florida rallied to take the lead a couple times, but Adriano served a 4-0 run to give the Huskers a 16-13 edge. Florida again pushed back, pulling ahead 19-18 to put some real pressure on Nebraska. However, the Huskers responded with a 3-0 run — including back-to-back big kills from Manaia Ogbechie, who stepped in as a starter with Rebekah Allick gone — to seal it.
“Manaia is so awesome, and it’s so impressive how she’s stepping up as a [sophomore] in those tight situations,” Jackson said. “Those two kills that she had towards the end of the [first] set that really pulled us ahead and gave us some momentum was incredible … Just being an underclassman and stepping up and doing that with the little experience that she has in those high-pressure moments is so impressive, and I’m really proud of her. I think it really shows that she’s really earned the right to be there, and she’s earned that spot, and I’m so excited for her because that was just a small percentage of what she can do.
“I’m really excited for you guys to see everything that she can do.”
Ogbechie finished the match with three kills and three blocks (including one solo), tying Jackson for the match high in stuffs.
Both sides hit .161 in the set. The difference in the deuce game proved to be two additional service errors from the Gators as Nebraska only misfired once.
Second Set
The Gators got off to a hot start in set two, using an 8-4 run to take a 13-10 lead midway through. The Gators were hitting well over .400 at that point.
Then the Huskers turned the tables with a 5-0 run. Laney Choboy subbed in for Adriano to serve the final three points of the run to give Nebraska a 15-13 lead and force a Florida timeout.
Jackson extended the lead to 17-14 with a kill and a solo block on back-to-back points and the Huskers held on from there. Sigler closed it out with an ace on Nebraska’s first match point.
The Cornhuskers shut down the Florida offense over the second half of the set, holding the Gators to .176 and hitting .286 on their end to earn a spot in the championship.
“We knew that it was not our best, and that’s OK,” Jackson said. “It’s pretty normal for the first set in front of so many people, different environment, different venue, but we just went into the huddle in between sets one and two, and like I said, we knew it wasn’t our best, so we acknowledged that, and we went back out, and I think even the start of set two wasn’t our best. It was still just a little bit messy and still some nerves, honestly, just because it is such a different venue than what we’re used to.
“But I remember during one of the challenges, we all just looked at each other and we were like, ‘Let’s have fun.’ … It can sound cheesy, but getting everyone to relax a little bit and not be so tense and uptight and just play Nebraska volleyball like how we do every single day, it really helped, and I think it really showed at the end. It was just way smoother.”
Up Next
The Huskers will have to move on quickly as the head to Las Vegas to open the regular season in the Players Era Showcase at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. They’ll face UNLV on Saturday at 7 p.m. CT on FS1 and No. 2 Texas (1-1) at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday on FOX.
