Huskers Fight Through Monotony of Season as Homestretch Nears

The grind goes on.

The start of the season is now a distant memory, but the postseason is still several weeks away. The next few weeks are the most challenging part of Nebraska’s schedule, both in who it plays and the mental exhaustion that can set in at this time of the season.

After sweeping Illinois on Thursday night, Nebraska hits the road again. Starting on Saturday afternoon, four of the Huskers’ next five matches will be all on the road. During the next two weeks, NU will face Minnesota, UCLA, USC and Indiana, all of which are in the top half of the Big Ten Standings.

Junior middle blocker Andi Jackson said the bevvy of upsets from last weekend show what can happen when top teams let their guard down. Even the coaching staff feels it, as assistant coach Kelly Natter joked on this week’s edition of The Dig podcast that she couldn’t keep track of what day of the week it was.

“It’s coming to the point where the season feels a little bit long,” Jackson said. “It starts to get to teams. This is where the real challenges come in, because the level of play only gets higher, and you have to become very mentally tough.”

The Huskers will play No. 22 Minnesota Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CST in front of a sold-out crowd at the Maturi Pavilion. The match will be streamed on Peacock.

Let’s have some fun! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/uXHAuehWi7
— Nebraska Volleyball (@HuskerVB) November 7, 2025

NU coach Dani Busboom Kelly said she hasn’t had to do much motivating of this year’s team to keep them focused during a 43-set winning streak. While match results have been largely uneventful, the Huskers set mini-goals each time out to maintain a high level of play. Busboom Kelly said it's just a matter of time before they get pushed in a match and they are trying to prepare when that happens.

She said the upperclassmen have kept everyone focused on the end goal of a national championship. While they don’t discuss it often as a group, the topic of winning a title arises more frequently in individual meetings.

“They’ve come up short the last couple of years, and they’re hungry,” she said. “With the depth we have, and we use it, it feels like anybody’s ready to make a play when they’re needed. Everybody’s pretty bought into adjustments and feels like if something is not going right, we can make a change and we’ll be great.”

While the championship is the end goal, Jackson said Busboom Kelly reminds them to enjoy the journey as well. She encourages the Huskers to “smell the roses” along the way and stay motivated during the long Big Ten season.

“At this high of level, you can get really caught up in the monotony of things, and winning can feel more relieving than exciting,” Jackson said. “Dani does a really good job letting us know that a win in the Big Ten is a really big deal, regardless of who it’s against. We know that what we’re doing is not easy, and she makes us feel very validated in it. One game at a time, one win at a time, celebrate it, take it for what it is, and then take it one day at a time.”

For freshman opposite Virginia Adriano, the college volleyball season is more intense than what she is used to playing in Italian professional leagues the past two years.

Virginia Adriano (9) passes an Illinois serve. — Virginia Adriano passes an Illinois serve on Thursday night. She said the schedule of two matches a week is more intense than what she experienced in Italy. | Amarillo Mullen

The Serie A1 in Italy features 26 match days over 20 weeks, so the rhythm of two matches every week is “intense,” according to Adriano. In addition, the Turin, Italy native said she is learning to balance practice and classes. She has to take more in-person classes compared to her teammates because she’s an international student.

Another significant difference is travel. Most of the time in Italy, she would travel to away matches by bus because most professional teams are located in the northern part of the country. Two years ago, she played for Volley Hermaea Olbia, which is based on the island of Sardinia. She took more flights that season, but always on commercial flights.

“There’s much more land to cross to go from everywhere, so I was not used to that,” Adriano said. “ It’s very cool to be able to fly charter every time. Having those privileges, it’s definitely different. I had never been on a charter before.”

Adriano is also learning more about Nebraska’s rivalries and playing in lively atmospheres. She said she enjoyed playing at Wisconsin’s Field House last week in front of a crowd of 7,229 and said it was one of the matches she was looking forward to the most.

“I didn’t really know a lot about other teams and the rivalries, but as soon as I understood, like Texas, Wisconsin, Penn State, those were the games I was most excited for,” she said. “It was a great atmosphere. Their gym is loud, so it was tough to hear each other, which is always cool.”

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