Excitement Over Relief Fueling Mindset for Top-Ranked Huskers

When you're No. 1, the only direction to go is down — unless you approach the challenge in an entirely different way.

The Nebraska Volleyball team enters each match with an "X" on their back, but it's how they handle it that is most important to coach Dani Busboom Kelly. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

When it comes to volleyball, Nebraska doesn't lose a lot. If you don't believe me, just look at the last decade of the sport in Lincoln.

Season	Record
2025	6-0
2024	33-3
2023	33-2
2022	26-6
2021	26-8
2020	16-3 (COVID Year)
2019	28-5
2018	29-7
2017	32-4
2016	31-3
2015	32-4

The team never lost more than eight matches in a year, and they flirted with perfect seasons on multiple occasions, with the closest being the 33-2 campaign in 2023, which ironically wasn't one of Nebraska's two national championship seasons.

Those were 2017 and 2015, when the Huskers went 32-4 twice en route to two titles in the three-year span. Back in 2006, the team nearly recorded a perfect season en route to another national championship for the program. That year, they went 33-1.

An undefeated season could be a tall task, even for the unanimous No. 1 team in the country. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

The last time Nebraska pulled off an undefeated season was exactly a quarter century ago. The 2000 Husker volleyball team went a perfect 34-0, but in that season, they still had their backs up against the wall on more than one occasion. They experience four five-set matches that season, including one in the national championship match against No. 4 Wisconsin.

Even the best Nebraska volleyball team in the past 25 years had to sweat a little bit, and it's safe to assume that once the perfect season was complete, the entire team took a big sigh of relief and could celebrate their monumental achievement. However, if the 2025 Nebraska volleyball team is fortunate enough to run the table, coach Dani Busboom Kelly better not hear any sighs before the cheers.

"It's a long season," Busboom Kelly said. "If you're feeling relieved after every game, it takes a lot of the joy out of it and the fun. I want our team to play free and enjoying every minute whether it's a big opponent or a small opponent that we are taking it for what it is."

Dani Busboom Kelly wants her team to feel excited, not relieved after big wins. So far, it's led Nebraska to a 6-0 start to the year. | Amarillo Mullen

The philosophy really took hold after Nebraska's first real test of the year and its first five-set thriller as well. The 7th-ranked Wildcats were one set away from sweeping a Nebraska volleyball team that had seen little resistance to that point in the early season. After dropping sets one and two, 26-24, 25-20, Nebraska flipped a switch.

They finished the match in reverse sweep fashion, winning the final three sets 25-19, 25-23, 15-8. It was after that gutsy win that Busboom Kelly did a vibe check with her team.

"After the Kentucky game, she asked us 'was that a relief that we won or were you excited that we won?'" junior setter Bergen Reilly said. "(She went on to say) 'I don't want it to be a relief that we win. It should be super exciting that we just had a huge win or a reverse sweep against a really good team.'"

Nebraska middle blocker Rebekah Allick and opposite hitter Virginia Adriano celebrate a point during a five-set victory over No. 7 Kentucky. | Nebraska Athletics

The two sets Kentucky took from Nebraska in that match account for two of the three sets the Huskers have surrendered all season through six games, which is an unreal stat in itself considering they've already played No. 3 Pittsburgh, No. 6 Stanford, and No. 7 Kentucky. Next up is another nationally-ranked opponent with No. 22 Utah coming to Lincoln to take on the Big Red, and for yet another match, a big red "X" will be on the back of the jerseys with a big red "N."

"We're always going to have a target on our back, being Nebraska in general, but especially right now — we're number one," Reilly said. "Dani just really makes an emphasis of take it all in, smell the roses, enjoy what we're doing, and enjoy that we're even in this position."

The upcoming Utah match on Friday night is the first match of Nebraska's first back-to-back of 2025, which didn't seem to bother either Reilly or Busboom Kelly during the team's weekly press conference. In fact, Reilly said the lack of a day off between matches usually helps the team keep up its intensity through the weekend — as long as they're enjoying the fruits of their labor as well.

Busboom-Kelly and the Huskers are enjoying the early undefeated run to start 2025, and they don't plan to stop having fun and enjoying the big moments along the way. | am

"The most important thing in this program is the thing we're doing right now," Busboom Kelly said. "I don't want to go through the next 25 games feeling relieved. I want to feel fired up for these wins. It's a big deal to win. Not every team gets to win. It's hard to win, so I want them to understand that too."

The latest AVCA rankings have Nebraska as a unanimous No. 1 team for the second-straight week, but they see plenty of ranked tests ahead of them, including two matches with No. 12 Penn State, a short drive to Omaha to take on No. 18 Creighton and other conference tests against No. 6 Wisconsin, No. 13 Minnesota, No. 14 Purdue, No. 16 USC, and No. 24 UCLA.

Members of the Husker Volleyball team celebrate after middle blocker Rebekah Allick hammered home a kill. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

An undefeated season is a tall ask, even for the unanimous No. 1 team in the land, so it makes Busboom Kelly's message this week all the more vital for her team to hear. It's okay to stop and smell the roses as long as you can maintain your focus.

"She always (says) take it all in," Reilly said of Busboom Kelly. "This is a really cool atmosphere, we have a really great crowd in front of us, and we also have a really great team. Just getting to enjoy all those little moments that we might forget about in the heat of a game."

The Huskers will be back in the heat of the battle Friday when they take on No. 22 Utah at 6 p.m. CDT in the Bob Devaney Sports Center, while also being televised on FS1. They'll follow that up with a Saturday evening match with Grand Canyon University at 6 p.m. CDT, televised on Nebraska Public Media.

---

---

Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI, subscribing to HuskerMax on YouTube, and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.