Nebraska Volleyball Makes Statement at 2025 Big Ten Media Days

The officials who organized the Big Ten volleyball media days knew what they were doing when they placed Nebraska as the final team to address reporters on the first of the two-day event. Nebraska media represented the majority of the crowd of reporters at the Big Ten Network studios, and posed the majority of the questions.

Penn State is the defending NCAA champions. Wisconsin won four straight league titles recently and has a quotable head coach who doesn’t mind making waves. And yet, it’s Nebraska that butters the Big Ten’s bread when it comes to attention. The Huskers acknowledged - and embraced - the cult of personality around the program during lengthy sets of interviews.

The team wall at 2025 Big Ten Volleyball Media Days in Chicago. | Ryan Kuttler

Here are the highlights of the Huskers’ Monday in Chicago.

Nebraska’s expectations couldn’t be higher - for themselves

Rebekah Allick’s honesty and introspection stood out in a pair of interviews. The senior middle blocker from Waverly didn’t downplay the disappointment of how Nebraska ended the 2024 season, losing to Penn State in the national semifinals after leading two sets to one and being up 22-16 in Game 4.

Asked pointedly about it by volleyball Hall of Famer Holly McPeak on the Big Ten’s studio show, Allick said “I’d argue that it haunts me.”

Nebraska volleyball middle blocker Rebekah Allick at 2025 Big Ten Media Days in Chicago. | Ryan Kuttler

It drew a chuckle from teammate Harper Murray standing next to her, but Allick, who had a swing on one of two Husker match points vs Penn State that, if converted, would’ve sent the Huskers to the title match, didn’t slow down.

“Yeah, it hurts, man. It burns,” Allick continued. “This has been my life for the last four years, and even before that, it’s all I dreamt about. Nebraska volleyball, in my opinion, is a very different program. We play for an entire community. We play for the farmers in the panhandle and even the big-city folks in Lincoln. You want to put on for your own city as a hometown kid, but it’s most important that we live up to it.”

Live up to what? The hype, the pressure, the expectations of reaching the final four for the eighth time in 11 seasons, which NU aims to do in 2025. They have the proven returning starters to do it, but Allick and Co., embrace the task with eight new players, at least two of whom likely will be counted on to start. Plus, a new head coach.

That hasn’t turned down the expectations. The Huskers were voted the favorites to with the Big Ten in the league’s preseason poll last week.

“Let’s live up to the hype,” Allick said. “Kind of tired of talking about ‘Let’s just get to the Final Four.’ Let’s win the national championship. So we’ve had to change the way we even talk about the future. It keeps me up at night, but in a good way.

Nebraska volleyball coach Dani Busboom Kelly and players Rebekah Allick and Harper Murray at Big Ten Media Days in Chicago. | Ryan Kuttler

“It was pretty apparent the first day I came in the gym that this group is really hungry to win,” new Husker coach Dani Busboom Kelly said. “I think falling short for two years in a row will eat you alive a little bit. I think this team is getting eaten alive, and it shows when they play. I’m excited to see what they can do on the court when we’re all together.”

DBK has made the Nebraska job her own

When John Cook retired in late January, the program spent all of about 25 minutes without a head coach before Nebraska announced the worst-kept secret in college volleyball, that Busboom Kelly was officially making the long-expected move to succeed the Nebraska legend.

Cook, who won four NCAA titles in Lincoln, casts a long shadow, but Busboom Kelly wears self-assuredness as comfortably as the trademark red blazers that fit in as well on the sideline in Lincoln as they did at Louisville when she built the Cardinals into a national power.

“I don’t have to live up to somebody that I’m not. I have to live up to expectations for myself,” Busboom Kelly said to BTN host Rick Pizzo. “Number one for me is always recruiting and the team. If I can make sure those two things are in line and the top of my list, I feel like everything else can come later.”

Nebraska volleyball coach Dani Busboom Kelly at 2025 Big Ten Media Days in Chicago. | Ryan Kuttler

Joking with Pizzo that she faced three biggest life milestones - changing jobs, moving, and having a baby - all in the course of this spring, Busboom Kelly still found time to make a strong impression with Nebraska’s upperclassmen. Allick and Murray, who were as close to Cook as any Huskers, gushed about their new leader Monday.

“Change is hard, guys. It’s hard. But I mean this from the bottom of my heart, I don’t think there’s anyone more deserving of this role than Dani Busboom (Kelly),” Allick said.

To which Murray quickly added, “Agreed.”

“The timing made sense. The person made sense,” Allick continued. “Everything, down to what she believes, to the practice plan, I just feel like what you embody is exactly what we need for this time.”

Early schedule will test Nebraska’s newcomers

Under Cook, Nebraska’s roster rarely went above 14 players, but with the NCAA raising the scholarship limit to 18, and NU’s commitment to funding those positions through revenue sharing and Name, Image and Likeness opportunities, the 2025 Huskers will have a roster of 17.

Nebraska outside hitter Harper Murray and middle blocker Rebekah Allick at 2025 Big Ten Media Days in Chicago. | Ryan Kuttler

Eight of those players will be newcomers - six freshmen, transfer Allie Sczech, and the international addition of Italian opposite hitter Virginia Adriano. They join Nebraska’s returning core of Murray, Allick, All-American middle blocker Andi Jackson, two-time Big Ten Setter of the Year Bergen Reilly, and defensive specialists Laney Choboy and Olivia Mauch, one of whom will become NU’s starting libero.

Busboom Kelly won’t be afraid to throw newcomers into the fire as Nebraska plays three of its first four matches against teams that could make a run at the Final Four in 2025: Pittsburgh, Stanford and Kentucky.

“We’re going to be pushed right away,” she said. “We’re going to be allowed to make some changes right away. See what sticks for this team and maybe learn about some players that haven’t been in those situations. A big chunk of this group has been in the national championship game (in 2023). Not much more pressure than that. But, how can we learn as fast as we can about some of our new players.”

That includes outside hitter Teraya Sigler, the nation’s No. 1 overall recruit by PrepDig.com, and Manaia Ogbechie, a 6-foot-3 middle blocker, who may already be one of the most explosive athletes in NU’s gym.

And, Murray said, it’s on the Husker veterans to help the newcomers quickly understand the standard expected when you wear “Nebraska” on your chest.

“With so many people, you have to figure out one way to make it work. As upperclassmen, it’s our job to hold that culture and hold that team tradition alive because we know the expectation and we know what to expect. We have to teach the younger girls what to do and help them and guide them.”

Nebraska volleyball outside hitter Harper Murray at 2025 Big Ten Media Days in Chicago. | Ryan Kuttler

Virginia Adriano already making strong impression

Adriano may be the most intriguing Husker newcomer. Unknown in U.S. volleyball circles until she was recruited by Nebraska, the 6-foot-5 opposite hitter, played professionally in Italy, earning time in both the top and second divisions.

Earning starting time in the league’s deepest professional league is nothing to sneeze at. Neither is starring for the U-23 national team for Italy, currently the world’s best international team…by not a small margin.

Nebraska began recruiting Adriano while Cook was still in charge, and will have three seasons of eligibility after the NCAA ruled on factors including her age and the amount she was paid playing in Italy.

Allick remarked that Adriano hit a shot during one of NU’s summer camps that had campers still whispering about it the next day. Her teammates said Adriano is a strong blocker with a tricky serve, and brief online highlight reels make you salivate at her potential.

As she’s gotten to know her new teammates since arriving in May, Allick said the Huskers have learned Adriano’s lighter side. “She’s a bit of a jokester. She’s really quite funny.”

Adriano figures to challenge Szech, the Baylor transfer, and freshman Ryan Hunter, who had standout moments in Nebraska’s spring exhibitions against Kansas and South Dakota State, for the starting opposite hitter job, replacing two-year starter Merritt Beason.

If she wins the job, Nebraska’s steps to make their newcomers feel like old friends will have helped.

“Our team does a really good job of opening the floor to let people be themselves and feel welcomed,” Murray said. “We’ve talked about that a few times. So I think she’s been able to come out of her shell faster than she’s expected.”

Decision on team captains still to come

Busboom Kelly clarified remarks on her recent appearance on the “Inside the Coaching Mind” podcast hosted by former Nebraska coach Terry Pettit on setter Bergen Reilly being one of Nebraska’s team captains this summer.

Reilly, a junior from South Dakota, was elected captain for the summer, and was praised by Busboom Kelly for her job in the role. But, the team will elect captains for the 2025 season sometime in the next couple of weeks.

“She’s been an awesome leader,” Busboom Kelly said of Reilly. “I think she’s one of our most consistent players. She’s super competitive, but she also is very empathetic in my opinion. She works really hard to understand her teammates, which I think makes her a really good leader.”

Huskers looking forward to Alumni Match

The week before the season opener on Aug. 22 against Pittsburgh, Nebraska’s Alumni Match will give fans another preseason peek at the 2025 roster while also letting them cheer for recent fan favorites.

The Alumni team will be headlined by Olympic gold medalist Jordan Larson, who spent last season as a Nebraska assistant coach. Current assistant and two-time national champion setter Kelly Hunter Natter will join Kenzie Maloney, Ally Batenhorst, Lindsay Krause, Leyla Blackwell, Anni Albrecht Moulder, Gina Mancuso-Prososki, and Callie Schwarzenbach on the team, which will be coached by former Husker and current Omaha Skutt coach Renee Saunders.

Asked which players they’re most excited about playing against, Murray said it’s hard to top playing against their current assistant, Kelly Natter, who will set the alumni team.

“We’ve been giving Kelly a hard time recently,” Murray said. “She’s been playing with us a little bit at open gyms just for fun, and we want her to go all out. We want the high socks, the spandex. We want everything.”

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