Nebraska’s Mighty Volleyball Team Takes Some of the Sting Away from Football Season

An East Coast friend recently read one of my articles on the Nebraska football team and had an intriguing comment.

First, he’s a Big Ten guy. Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. Big Buckeyes fan who follows the Big Ten religiously.

“The Cornhuskers are having a tough year,” he said. “But that’s OK. Nebraska is a volleyball school.”

He was right. For most of the last two decades, you can correctly say Nebraska is a volleyball school. Especially in 2025. The Huskers have a team that could win a national championship.

What timing and what a juxtaposition between the two Nebraska programs. One week, the football team’s disappointing regular season ends. The very next week, the volleyball team rides to the rescue.

Nebraska volleyball No. 1

Nebraska volleyball is seeded No. 1 overall in the nation. Undefeated in the regular season — 30-0, a dominant 30-0. Plus, the Huskers were 20-0 in the Big Ten, the nation’s best volleyball conference.

The NCAA Tournament begins Friday and for Huskers fans unable to shrug off the football team’s collapse to a 7-5 record, the volleyball team seems more than capable of providing a much-needed boost to Husker fans.

Nebraska volleyball is an intriguing combination of power and smarts. The Huskers at times play as if they are in a ballet troupe — moving in sync with grace and speed — but they bring plenty of heat and power at the net on offense and defense.

The Huskers are rarely out of place, attacking at every opportunity. Nebraska so overwhelms opponents that the Huskers have only lost seven sets all season.

The team has tons of personality — and even more talent. Four Huskers made the All-Big Ten first team: Bergen Reilly, Rebekah Allick, Harper Murray and Andi Jackson.

Fans pack the Bob Devaney Sports Center for every game. For real: every game. There isn’t an empty seat in the house.

Memorial Stadium is always sold out for the football team, either, but that’s where the current similarities between the programs end. For football, it was a struggle this season, last season and has been for multiple seasons.

Opportunity wasted for football program

With two games to play, Nebraska football was 7-3. Eight or nine wins were possible. The season could have been a major step on the Huskers’ road back to redemption.

The Huskers might not have had a better chance to defeat Penn State than it did this year. The Nittany Lions were dealing with a coaching change, an injured starting quarterback, a coaching search, a program seemingly unfocused and directionless.

Nebraska walked into Beaver Stadium where a fired up, prime-time crowd awaited. A prime-time crowd, and team, that wasn’t accepting defeat, not on that night, not with Penn State still playing for bowl eligibility.

Penn State 37, Nebraska 10.

On to the season finale, when Nebraska had a great chance, in theory, to finally end its haunting losing run against Iowa. It was a home game, a game to send the seniors off with a victory, and a motivated Huskers team desperate to regain the upper hand on the Hawkeyes. Nebraska’s backup quarterback, TJ Lateef, had two starts under his belt and that bit of experience might be enough.

And, of course, the Huskers had running back Emmett Johnson, who often is the best player on the field. If someone said Johnson would rush for a career-high 217 yards and a touchdown against the traditionally stingy Iowa defense, Husker fans would have said: Sign me up.

Iowa 40, Nebraska 16.

In Nebraska’s losses to Penn State and Iowa, the Huskers scored seven second-half points.

Total.

The touchdown was against Penn State, an 11-yard run by Lateef. That’s two huge games and a total of seven second-half points.

Which is why Husker fans can’t wait for the volleyball team to take the court on Friday night.

Volleyball is what the football program once was

For those under 35 or 40 years of age, who might not remember how powerful the Nebraska football program was in the 1990s — three national titles in four years — there is a simple parallel to make.

If you want to know how great Nebraska football was back in the day, you don’t have to look far. The answer is right on campus.

Nebraska volleyball has won five national titles, the last in 2017. The Huskers have lost in the national championship match three times since 2018.

For a Nebraska fan base mostly despondent over what happened on the football field this fall, the volleyball team is there for you — ready and able, talented and confident.

Worrying about football always will be there. For now, enjoy the volleyball.

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