Fans got their first look at the 2026 Nebraska volleyball team at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D., the first of three exhibitions this spring. Up next is a trip to D.J. Sokol Arena on Friday to take on in-state rival Creighton.
The Huskers swept Iowa State 4-0 in Bergen Reilly’s return to Sioux Falls, with numerous standouts — particularly at the pin-hitter positions. Three Huskers finished with eight kills to lead the way, including one of the stars of the offseason in sophomore-to-be Teraya Sigler.
“Teraya has done really well, and I’m really proud of her,” Reilly said prior to the Iowa State match. “She had some lingering issues, body issues, and she got those fixed, and she’s looking great. So I’m really excited that everybody gets to see that this spring.”
The 6-foot-3 outside hitter from Scottsdale, Ariz., started all season as a freshman but played primarily in the back row. Playing all six rotations is the next step for PrepDig.com’s top-ranked player in the 2025 class, and to do that Coach Dani Busboom Kelly said she needs to prove she can kill balls out of system.
“She’s got one of the heaviest arms on the team,” Busboom Kelly said. “She’s also maybe made the biggest transformation from December until now when it comes to power and vertical. [It’s] just being able to kill balls out of system, because she’s going to kill it in system. Can she get it done when there are two big blocks in front of her? But like I said, she’s had an awesome offseason and is playing much better, much stronger in the front row than she was last year.”
She killed balls every way possible against the Cyclones, finishing with eight kills on 14 errorless swings (.571) — in system, out of system and from the back row.
Busboom Kelly more or less split her roster into two teams, with each group playing two sets. Sigler carried the load in sets three and four while Skyler Pierce and Virginia Adriano stole the show in the first two games.
Pierce, heading into her third season with the program as a redshirt sophomore, terminated on eight of her nine swings (.889) while splitting time in the back row with redshirt freshman defensive specialist Keri Leimbach. Pierce’s first pass went a little awry — though remained in play — but she settled in after that and finished with six errorless receptions plus five digs.
“Skyler had an awesome match,” Busboom Kelly said. “She hasn’t played back row hardly at all in a game. I thought she held her own really well back there. So just to see her swing away, do great and not let maybe some errors in the back row affect her front row, I thought that was a great step for her.”
The 6-foot-2 outside hitter from Lenexa, Kan., redshirted in 2024 and totaled 32 kills, nine digs, three blocks and an ace in 24 sets played last season. With two years of training under her belt, she said her confidence level is high.
“It really helps with having teammates that help lift me up, especially if I’m having a bad practice, or throughout the last season and the season before that, having a group of girls that really lift me up when I’m doing well, it helps me build my confidence and have more confidence going out there to swing hard,” Pierce said.
Pierce is among the players competing to fill the void left by Taylor Landfair’s departure, and Saturday showed she’s more than a viable candidate for significant playing time this season.
“I think the last two years have been preparation for this year and the years to come,” she said. “It’ll be taking everything I’ve learned in the past and all the mentors I’ve had, and using everything I’ve learned to my advantage.”
Opposite of Pierce in the first two sets, Adriano was a force against the Cyclones as well. She totaled eight kills on 12 errorless swings while playing all the way around. She killed the ball from both pins as well as from the back row (in the middle and on the right side). Adriano recorded seven kills on eight swings in the first set alone before sitting down midway through the second to give freshman Jayden Robinson some reps on the right side.
“Just the fact she came out super confident,” Busboom Kelly said of what she saw from Adriano. “She didn’t play back row last year; she had some awesome swings from the back row. Getting her to be as confident as we can would be huge for this team.”
Her first season in the program featured plenty of ups and downs, but overall she averaged 2.16 kills per set on .287 hitting in her first season of college volleyball. Confidence and staying positive is something Adriano has admittedly struggled with at times, but there wasn’t much to get down on herself about against the Cyclones.
“I feel like I’m always a little bit stressed and anxious in the first game,” Adriano said. “I feel like it has always been like that, and always will. Leaning on my teammates and trying to smile, which is what I’ve been working on, and keeping a positive energy, I feel like that’s been helping me a lot with actual volleyball …
“I do feel very confident and comfortable. Of course, the first season started a little bit rough, but by the end, I feel like I was able to show what I’d been working on. And I feel like this game was really good, especially because it was the first game. So as I said, I was a little bit stressed, but I think it went great.”
Busboom Kelly has noticed the uptick in confidence from Adriano as she prepares for her second season in the program.
“She’s adjusted to our style of play and how we set and is just, I think, getting to know our setters better,” Busboom Kelly said prior to the first exhibition. “I think she’s just taken her game to a new level, where she’s expecting herself to kill the ball, and she wants to be that player that can take over matches. I’ve seen her grow a lot, and hopefully that shows up in these three games.”
It certainly did in game one. The 6-foot-5 opposite hitter from Turin, Italy, is going through her first spring with Nebraska after joining the program in August last year, and she said she’s already seeing how much of a difference it can make, a notion her head coach echoed.
“I think springs are so, so important, in development and relationship building and confidence and kind of setting the stage going into the fall,” Busboom Kelly said. “You get all that training, you get kind of a short break, and then our players kind of know what to do in the summer and how they want to go about open gyms. So the spring is always really important. It’s also really fun. There’s less pressure, and you really just focus on getting better each day and building relationships and the team, building some team culture. Every team is different, so it’s really good to get a head start on that, starting in January, with our entire team being here.”
The three underclassman pins will look to build on their success against the Cyclones on Friday as they take on the Bluejays. First serve is set for 7 p.m. CT on Nebraska Public Media. Fans outside the market can watch the game on Nebraska Public Media’s YouTube page.
