Nebraska volleyball looked every bit the No. 1 team in the nation during the AVCA First Serve over the weekend. The Huskers beat No. 3 Pittsburgh 3-1 and swept No. 6 Stanford in dominant fashion to open the season 2-0.
After an offseason filled with fierce competition in the practice gym, 12 of the 17 Huskers on the roster saw the court at the sold-out Pinnacle Bank Arena, and Coach Dani Busboom Kelly liked what she saw from her squad.
“I really thought we played with a lot of joy,” Busboom Kelly said. “Tereya [Sigler] in the locker room after the game, she was one that said this was just a blast. Everybody on the court was lit — that’s not my lingo, I’m repeating her. The court was lit, the bench was lit, the crowd was lit. So she was saying that the whole experience was just so much fun, and it’s great when, especially somebody that’s in the game and then comes out for three rotations to have the same perspective and the same vibes, whether you’re on the court or off the court, that’s pretty special, and that’s what I noticed.
“It just felt like everybody was so engaged the entire game, and you weren’t really thinking about who was on the court. It was just you’re always thinking about the team and what we were doing, not what one individual is doing.”
Even so, one individual shined and raked in the accolades. Senior middle blocker Rebekah Allick earned AVCA National Player of the Week after averaging 2.86 kills per set on .406 hitting and 1.71 blocks per set. She earned match MVP from the AVCA against Stanford. Allick also won Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week and earned a spot on the AVCA All-First Serve Team.
Junior Bergen Reilly is the Big Ten Setter of the Week after averaging 10.86 assists and 2.71 digs, guiding Nebraska to a .294 hitting percentage. She notched her first double-double of the season against Pitt then against Stanford set Nebraska to its highest hitting percentage (.385) against a ranked opponent since 2016.
“She played really well,” Busboom Kelly said of her starting setter. “She took some risks, and some of them paid off great. Some of them weren’t so great, but that’s what you want to do early on in the year. She is a fabulous defender, great server, she just makes winning plays, and I thought she showed that this weekend.”
With only three Big Ten teams playing during the first week, competition was light, but Virginia Adriano also won Big Ten Freshman of the Week after starting in her first match as a Husker and recording six kills and three blocks against the Panthers.
While Nebraska remained in Lincoln to open the season, the Huskers will have to wait another week before playing in their first match at the Devaney Center. The Huskers are hitting the road this week to play two matches in Nashville — a road match at Lipscomb and a neutral site match against No. 7 Kentucky. The Huskers and Wildcats will square off at Bridgestone Arena in the Broadway Block Party, an event pitting Big Ten teams against SEC squads.
“Nashville’s such a fun city,” Busboom Kelly said. “A lot of distractions, I know that, so I’m glad we have that game on Friday against Lipscomb to keep us focused, because the weekends in Nashville can be a blast. But there are a lot of people on our team that haven’t been there, so it’s going to be really cool, really cool to take in the city a little bit. We’re trying to find some good restaurants to make sure that we take advantage of being there and get out and see the city and enjoy it.”
Sophomore Laney Choboy is one of those players visiting Music City for the first time.
“I think we’re really excited,” Choboy said. “I’ve never actually been to Nashville, so I’m really excited. I think any opportunity that we get to go and play in front of these big crowds, or at away gyms in general is just experience that we’re going to take for the rest of the season as we continue to go on away trips and hopefully make Final Four and national championship when we’re also in a big gym. So I think our team is really excited. We made cowgirl hats.”
Before the Huskers get to the big building, however, they’ll have to make a stop at Allen Arena. Three of Nebraska’s first four opponents are top-10 teams. Lipscomb is the exception, though Busboom Kelly isn’t taking the Bison lightly.
“The challenge is staying focused and making sure our team isn’t listening to, whether it’s good or bad noise, that we’re focused on ourselves and our improvement, and Lipscomb’s another match to improve and hopefully see what other players can do. It’s our first road game, I’m sure that’ll be sold out. Lipscomb is a really good mid-major; this isn’t a team that hasn’t competed in NCAA Tournaments or beaten Power Five teams before, so they’ve shown that they can compete with a lot of Power Five schools.”
Lipscomb went 19-11 last season, falling in the Atlantic Sun Championship match, but the Bison head into the season as the preseason ASUN favorite.
Senior outside hitter Courtney Jones is the preseason pick for ASUN Player of the Year after averaging 3.54 kills per set on .248 hitting last season. Senior setter Sophia Hudepohl is the ASUN preseason Setter of the Year after averaging 9.86 assists with a team-high 38 aces as a junior. Both players were unanimous picks for the preseason All-ASUN Team.
The first two weeks of the season have featured familiar opponents for Nebraska’s new head coach with the two ACC squads in the First Serve and now Louisville’s archrival in Kentucky, led by former Nebraska assistant coach Craig Skinner.
“Skinner was the assistant here when I was a player, so we had a player-coach relationship, and then going to Louisville — I don’t know if there are too many rivals in the whole country that can top the Louisville-Kentucky rivalry … We know a lot about each other’s coaching styles, but I’m excited to play Kentucky,” Busboom Kelly said. “It’s a new challenge. This weekend was a challenge, and Kentucky has some things that — they’ve they will be good enough to be a team in December that makes it all the way, in my opinion, based on their roster. So that’ll be a heck of a challenge for us.”
The Wildcats lost one of the best setters in the country in Emma Grome but return AVCA Player of the Year finalist Brooklyn DeLeye and landed one of the most prolific pin hitters in the portal in former Purdue Boilermaker Eva Hudson. DeLeye averaged 4.87 kills per set on .294 hitting as a sophomore, while Hudson led the Big Ten in kills at 4.81 per set on .287 hitting.
“You can’t just stop [DeLeye], or you’re going to give up a lot to Hudson,” Busboom Kelly said. “They’re arguably the best outside hitter duo in the country. Both play six rotations and they both are great out of the back row, and that’s what makes it even more challenging is you’re not just worried about them each when they’re in the front row. You really have to worry about them both the entire six rotations, because they’re almost as good at the back row as the front row.”
The Wildcats also return their top middle blockers in Brooke Bultema and Jordyn Dailey and their libero in Molly Tuozzo from a team that went 23-8, win the SEC and reached a Regional Final in the NCAA Tournament.
After playing in front of 15,500-plus fans in their first two matches with the AVCA attempting to replicate a Final Four-type atmosphere, the Huskers will take on another top-10 team in a big area as Bridgestone holds 18,500 fans for basketball (no capacity is listed for volleyball). Busboom Kelly sees great value in the experience her team is gaining.
“I thought playing at PBA was massive for preparation, because if we’re not here for the regional, and I know we had the crowd behind us, but we’ve been there where there’s a light show and there’s a huge crowd and big moments where every play, you’re feeling pressure,” Busboom Kelly said. “So this weekend was really, really important, I’d say, for later on, and then this coming weekend will be more of a neutral crowd, so that’ll be a little more like a Final Four crowd. We’ll have our fans that travel for sure, but the majority of the fans are likely just going to be the casual volleyball fans.”
After playing on FOX and ESPN in their first two matches, ABC will televise the match against Kentucky. Nebraska-Pittsburgh boasted 771,000 viewers — the second most-watched regular season match ever and most-watched that didn’t have an NFL game lead into it. The Nebraska-Stanford match saw 573,000 viewers, another big number.
“We always want to be leading the charge when it comes to moving the sport along and making sure volleyball puts up big numbers, and it’s something that these networks are fighting over to get to air these matches,” Busboom Kelly said. “Our team embraces that, and more importantly, it’s not the team, the university does and the athletic department. It’s huge.”
Friday’s match at Lipscomb is set for a 6 p.m. CT start on ESPN+. Sunday’s match on ABC will start at 11 a.m.
