3 Quick Sideouts From Nebraska's 3-1 Win Over Pitt

Husker players wanted this for DBK

LINCOLN—One thing that really struck a chord with me from Nebraska’s press conference on Thursday afternoon before the AVCA First Serve Showcase was a comment from Dani Busboom Kelly about Nebraska playing its first-ever match at Pinnacle Bank Arena being one of the only new frontiers available for her to achieve as Nebraska’s head coach.

National titles? Check. Big Ten Championships? Been there, done that. Playing in a football stadium? Yep.

Nebraska’s new head coach recognized she’s now the steward of a program with a long and rich history. There are few new trails left for her to blaze.

Nebraska volleyball coach Dani Busboom Kelly at practice ahead of the 2025 season. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

So her first match leading the Huskers was always going to feel special, but doing it on a night Nebraska put over 15,000 fans in the school’s basketball base, added an extra layer of satisfaction.

The fact that it game against Pitt, her former ACC adversary when Busboom Kelly coached Louisville, made it doubly sweet.

“We all really wanted it for her super bad, especially because it was against Pitt, her old rival,” Nebraska middle blocker Andi Jackson said. “We all really wanted it for her so bad.”

Andi Jackson fires a shot for one of her 10 kills. She earned match MVP honors in the 3-1 win over No. 3 Pitt. — Good God, look how high that is! Andi Jackson earned match MVP honors in the 3-1 win over No. 3 Pitt. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Busboom Kelly reminded reporters - as well as Jackson and Harper Murray, both seated to her left - that her own Husker playing days came in the NU Coliseum, which seated roughly a quarter of Friday’s Pinnacle Bank Arena crowd.

“It was really cool!” she chided her players, who both snickered when Busboom Kelly mentioned the Coliseum.

She recalled the only bit of digital entertainment in the Coliseum was a small, pixelated scoreboard that could show off rough animations. Friday, Nebraska took the court underneath Pinnacle Bank Arena’s new, massive, circular videoboard that made its Coliseum counterpart look like an Etch-A-Sketch in comparison.

veebz at the peebz 🔜🏐🔒

(translation: volleyball at PBA tomorrow!!!) pic.twitter.com/Px7GtnwIgF
— Nebraska Volleyball (@HuskerVB) August 21, 2025

How far she’d come. And the Huskers’ new head coach spent time before Friday’s match savoring the moment. About a half hour before the first serve, in a Pinnacle Bank Arena hallway, she crossed paths with her former coach and boss, John Cook, who brought her from Cortland, Neb., to the Coliseum 20 years ago.

The pair briefly embraced. “Have fun tonight,” Cook told her.

Vanquishing her former conference foe in her first match leading NU was “magical,” Busboom Kelly admitted. But not just because of the win. The sell-out of Pinnacle Bank Arena wasn’t a ceiling she and the current Huskers raised on their own.

A lot of the people who watched her play in the team’s original home were probably there, she figured, helping the Huskers continue to be the brand chosen to help push the college game forward.

“Just to see Husker fans continue to elevate the sport of volleyball,” Busboom Kelly said. “Go from the Coliseum where they have to be the noise, but then, on the flip side. to come here and embrace the technology. Get into it, make it more special and unique for our sport, again, says a lot about our fans. These are some of the same fans that went to the Coliseum for 20 years, and they’re here and loving everything new about the sport, too.”

Nebraska volleyball's first-ever match at Pinnacle Bank Arena finished with a 3-1 win over No. 3 Pitt. | Amarillo Mullen

Defense fueled Nebraska’s Game 1 comeback

Nebraska looked like it was on the verge of letting the first set slip away despite Pitt’s offense being mired in Salt Creek mud to start.

The Panthers didn’t record a kill until their 12th swing of the match, but NU’s own early rash of serving and attacking errors let Pitt stay close enough for their star opposite hitter Olivia Babcock to grab it.

Babcock averaged 4.72 kills per set in 2024. That's a lot. — Babcock had a match-high 21 kills and three services aces against Nebraska on Friday. | Courtesy Pitt Athletics

Babcock’s ace, one of three on Friday resulting from her ruinous topspin jump serve, put the Panthers up 21-18 before Taylor Landfair took over late.

After NU pulled within 21-20, Landfair and Jackson teamed up to block Babcock to tie it 21-21. The run continued with a Landfair kill, and when Landfair and Jackson again stuffed Babcock, the Huskers would close it out on the next rally, ending Game 1 on a 7-1 run.

Laney Choboy (left) and Taylor Landfair (right) celebrate Landfair's kill. — Laney Choboy (left) and Taylor Landfair celebrate Landfair's kill. | Amarillo Mullen

“She created a ton of momentum for our team. We were so proud of her,” Jackson said. “She really stepped up. Especially as a senior, it was cool to see her use that opportunity that she was given. We were all really proud of her. It was a huge momentum creator for our team. After she got those few kills, few blocks, we were ready to go from there. There was no stopping us.”

Landfair finished with eight kills and eight blocks.

Nebraska might not face a better player all season

We speculated on our special pre-game edition of the “Volleyball State” podcast (live, Sundays at 7 p.m., if you subscribe), Pittsburgh might have the best player on the floor, but Nebraska would have the better overall team.

Hard to argue that Babcock wasn’t as great as advertised on Friday. The reigning AVCA National Player of the Year shook off a slow start to, at times, singlehandedly keep Pitt in the match.

After hitting .000 in her first 34 swings, Babcock was at her best in Game 4, when she had eight kills on 14 attacks, plus back-to-back aces that nearly wrestled Pitt into a fifth set.

For the match, Babcock finished with 21 kills, but was hassled into 14 errors on 58 swings, which came from all over the court.

BIG BLOCK VIRGINIA ADRIANO‼️🫨#NCAAWVB x 📺 FOX / @HuskerVB pic.twitter.com/PaouiyoGIR
— NCAA Women's Volleyball (@NCAAVolleyball) August 23, 2025

Her good friend, Nebraska’s Harper Murray, couldn’t help but be impressed. The pair have known each other for years through the club volleyball and junior national circuits. Their mothers are good friends, and the families have traveled together.

“She’s the best person I’ve ever met,” Murray said of Babcock. “She’s so humble. She doesn’t understand how good she is.”

Pitt coach Dan Fisher is still figuring out the pieces to complement Babcock. No other Panther finished with more than eight kills. And starting outside hitter Blaire Bayless was removed after two sets in which none of her nine attacks found the floor.

Credit Nebraska’s block - the Huskers’ triple stuff of Babcock on match point provided a fitting closure for the match - but also Nebraska’s tenacious floor defense, Busboom Kelly said.

BIG ROOF TO CALL MATCH. HUSKERS WIN! #GBR pic.twitter.com/Rfz2qFqItq
— Nebraska Volleyball (@HuskerVB) August 23, 2025

Laney Choboy, making her debut as Nebraska’s starting libero, was excellent with a match-high 16 digs. Sophomore Olivia Mauch was also solid with eight digs and a service ace late in Game 4.

“I thought they were both fantastic,” Busboom Kelly said. “Laney did a great job. In serve receive, I thought Pitt targeted her a little bit for it being her first game in the libero jersey. She handled that really well. And Olivia made great adjustments throughout the match. You just saw her get more and more comfortable as the match went on, maybe taking some balls that an off-blocker would take.”

Nebraska Volleyball 2025 Schedule

Aug. 9 Red 3, White 1
Aug. 16 Nebraska 3, Alumni 1
Aug. 22 Nebraska 3, Pittsburgh 1
Aug. 24 vs. Stanford (AVCA First Serve Showcase at Pinnacle Bank Arena) 2:30 p.m. ESPN
Aug. 29 at Lipscomb 6 p.m. ESPN+
Aug. 31 vs. Kentucky (Broadway Block Party in Nashville) 11 a.m. ABC
Sept. 5 vs. Wright State 7 p.m.
Sept. 7 vs. California 1 p.m. BTN
Sept. 12 vs. Utah 6 p.m. FS1
Sept. 13 vs. Grand Canyon 6 p.m. NPM
Sept. 16 at Creighton 6:30 p.m. FS1
Sept. 20 vs. Arizona BTN
Sept. 24 vs Michigan 6 p.m. BTN
Sept. 27 vs. Maryland 3 p.m. NPM
Oct. 3 at Penn State 7 p.m. FOX
Oct. 4 at Rutgers
Oct. 10 vs. Washington 8 p.m. BTN
Oct. 12 at Purdue
Oct. 17 at Michigan State
Oct. 19 at Michigan 1 p.m.
Oct. 24 vs. Northwestern NPM
Oct. 25 vs. Michigan State 7:30 p.m. BTN
Oct. 31 at Wisconsin 8 p.m. BTN
Nov. 2 vs. Oregon 1 p.m. BTN
Nov. 6 vs. Illinois 7 p.m. FS1
Nov. 8 at Minnesota 2:30 p.m. NBC
Nov. 14 at UCLA BTN
Nov. 16 at USC 2 p.m. B1G+
Nov. 20 vs. Iowa FS1
Nov. 22 at Indiana
Nov. 28 vs. Penn State 5:30 p.m. BTN
Nov. 29 vs. Ohio State BTN

Home matches are bolded. All times central.

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