No. 1 Nebraska volleyball used a gritty defensive effort and a strong serving match to sweep Kansas State in Saturday night’s second-round NCAA Tournament match.
The Huskers took down the Wildcats 25-17, 25-21, 25-16 in front of a crowd of 8,601 at the Devaney Center despite hitting just .253, Nebraska’s lowest percentage since hitting .250 in the five-set win over Creighton back on Sept. 16.
“I thought it was a really good match,” Coach Dani Busboom Kelly said. “Kansas State played great. They really challenged us in a lot of areas, and I thought this was one of the first matches in a while we had to gut it out with our serve and pass and floor defense, which is kind of classic Nebraska volleyball. I felt like we handled it really well. We kept our composure, stayed really steady and finished the match with our best volleyball tonight.”
Nebraska out-dug Kansas State 48-32 and held the Wildcats to .118 hitting. After Olivia Mauch started at libero against Long Island on Friday, Laney Choboy received the jersey Saturday, and both players contributed heavily to the win. Mauch had a match-high 13 digs and served two aces at defensive specialist, while Choboy added 12 digs, five assists and two aces.
“They did great all around, and Dani shouted them out in the locker room,” Bergen Reilly said of the two littles. “When it comes down to defense, it comes down to them, and they really kept us in that game. They’re not going to have kills or necessarily points on the board, but they got some aces and they just were so solid on defense. When your offense isn’t really flowing like it normally does, then it goes down to defense, and I’m just really proud of both of them for stepping up to the plate.”
Andi Jackson led the way for Nebraska for the second straight night, totaling 10 kills on .533 hitting and three blocks. Kansas State was the junior’s 16th match hitting .500 or better this season.
“She’s special,” Kansas State coach Jason Manfield said. “She’s someone that she’s so elite athletically, but she attacks the court in different ways. You’re really not going to block her — you may soft block her a couple times, but you have to defend her, you have to dig her and hope she hits the ball around you because she’s so physical. She’s special. She’s someone that has been hard to stop all season and for the rest of the season is going to be really hard to stop as well.”
Harper Murray matched Jackson with 10 kills. Taylor Landfair recorded eight on .278 hitting. Virginia Adriano scored seven kills and Rebekah Allick chipped in six on .308 hitting and a solo block. The Huskers served seven aces with only six errors.
“I thought our composure was great,” Busboom Kelly said. “It never felt like we were stressed, even though it looked like it out on the court, and the timeouts, communication was great. The communication between plays was great. So all the things that we can control were very, very good, and that’s what you want this time of year.”
The Huskers used a pair of aces — one from Choboy and one from Adriano — to race out to a 7-2 lead in the first set. The Wildcats stopped the bleeding temporarily, but Nebraska extended the lead to seven with a 5-0 run featuring Reilly at the service line.
The Kansas State block came alive from there, sparking a 7-2 run to trim the margin to two at 16-14, but Nebraska responded by winning eight of the next nine rallies, including the highlight of the night featuring tremendous efforts from Mauch, Reilly and Teraya Sigler.
ABSOLUTE PANDEMONIUM IN THE JCA
TIMEOUT, K-STATE! 🗣️ 🗣️ 🗣️ 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/g2mFMw9x1F
— Nebraska Volleyball (@HuskerVB) December 7, 2025
“I kind of launched it, and so I just remember saying, ‘Come on, T,’” Reilly said of the play. “It’s fun to be in those plays, and that was the loudest I’ve heard Devaney, maybe all season. That was super cool and such a big momentum play, and even though it’s just one point, that kind of changed the trajectory of the first set. So it’s fun … We have plays like that every single day in practice, so seeing it come out in games is pretty cool.”
Kansas State saved a couple set points before the Huskers closed it out. Nebraska hit .286 behind 13 assists from Reilly and five kills from Murray. Kansas State hit .088 with half as many kills as the Huskers put down.
Nebraska got off to a much slower start in set two, misfiring three times while falling behind 4-1. Nebraska settled in with three straight including an ace from Mauch, and the game turned into a dog fight from there with six ties and three lead changes over the next several rallies.
Nebraska used a 4-0 run including another Choboy ace to take the lead for good, though Kansas State continued to punch back. The Wildcats pulled within one at 22-21, but Nebraska closed out the set with a 3-0 run including a set-point block from Jackson and Murray.
With Adriano struggling against the Kansas State block, Busboom Kelly turned to Allie Sczech midway through the set, and the senior notched two kills, including one to spark the final run.
Nebraska only hit .139 in the set, while Kansas State hit .171. However, the Huskers earned a six-point edge at the service line thanks to three aces (with just one error) and four errors from the Wildcats. Kansas State recorded four more blocks to disrupt Nebraska’s offense.
“I think they just did a good job of being in good spots, and that’s kind of our goal when we’re blocking too, is to just be in good spots and kind of take away what the other team wants to do,” Reilly said. “They were doing a great job of that, so we had to adjust a little bit. Our defense hung in there, and we were ready for long rallies. I was really proud of us. Even when it didn’t feel super clean, we still were just playing Nebraska volleyball.”
The back-and-forth play continued into the third set with six ties and four lead changes in the first 19 rallies. However, the Huskers eventually settled in and ripped off a 7-1 run to surge ahead 16-10, then Mauch served a 5-0 run for the knockout blow, extending the lead to 10. They traded points the rest of the way from there, with Landfair delivering the final kill.
Nebraska finally found its rhythm in the third set, hitting .393 behind five kills from Jackson, on six swings, and another four from Adriano, who returned to the lineup for the third set after her stretch on the bench. Nebraska held Kansas State to .097 hitting and just seven kills.
Murray said the Huskers can learn a lot from a match like Saturday’s as they continue in the tournament.
“I think us being put in high-pressure situations is going to be good for us going deep into the tournament, and Bergen said it in the locker room, we really need to take in the moments and appreciate that we’re able to be here,” Murray said. “Not every team is able to play in the Sweet 16, and just being grateful that we’re here and learning from that … I think we can just take away that we’re not invincible. Teams are going to put their best fight up against us, as they should, and they deserve our best effort too.”
With the win, the Huskers will get one more week at the Devaney Center as they will host a regional. Fourth-seeded Kansas will make the trip to face the Huskers after beating 5-seed Miami 3-1.
Louisville, the 2-seed, survived a five-setter against Marquette, while No. 3 Texas A&M beat TCU in four to set up the other half of the Lincoln regional bracket.
“We need to be grateful that we’ve been able to host three years in a row,” Murray said. “I don’t know how many years consecutively Nebraska has been able to host, but at least as long as I’ve been here, we’ve been able to host at home, and I don’t think people understand how much of an advantage that is and how cool it is too. Playing in a gym like Bob, we say it all the time, but it’s really hard to beat us here, and I feel like that’s shown the past few years, especially this year.
“So just being grateful that we’re here for another year and soaking up our next two games here, hopefully two.”
The Cardinals and Aggies will face off Friday night at 6 p.m. CT inside John Cook Arena, with the Huskers and Jayhawks to follow at 8:30. The regional final will be Sunday, with its start time to be determined.
