Sheldon: One of the Most Dominant Regular Seasons in Big Ten History

The goal-setting priorities Dani Busboom Kelly laid out early in the 2025 season framed Nebraska’s success as being measured by “a banner, not names.”

Team success over individual accolades, in other words.

The Huskers will add at least one banner to the upper reaches of John Cook Arena with its third straight Big Ten championship - and possibly another next month if it reaches the Final Four in Kansas City.

B1G THREE-PEAT 🏆🏆🏆

YOUR HUSKERS ARE THE 2025 BIG TEN CHAMPIONS! pic.twitter.com/4njip2J7A4
— Nebraska Volleyball (@HuskerVB) November 23, 2025

But even Nebraska’s sixth Big Ten banner, which will join an already-crowded tapestry collection in the Devaney Center’s rafters, won’t tell the whole story of a historically dominant run through the league.

If the Huskers close the regular season with wins over Penn State, who Nebraska utterly dominated at Rec Hall in October, and Ohio State, which spent most of the season in the Big Ten cellar before recently clawing its way to merely the bottom quarter of the standings, it will be the first time since NU joined the conference in 2011 that it will have gone unbeaten in league play and the first time a Big Ten champion has gone 20-0 against league foes since Penn State did it for the third consecutive season in 2009.

Rebekah Allick (5) sends a kill to get the Huskers the first point of the match. — Senior middle blocker Rebekah Allick will be honored on Senior Night this weekend. | Amarillo Mullen

Perhaps it’s fitting that the Nittany Lions will be one of the final challengers to ding the Huskers’ historic run. Penn State’s run of three straight unbeaten seasons from 2007-09 set a standard unlikely to ever be matched, with the 2008 national title team commonly considered the greatest team in NCAA volleyball history.

That year, the Nittany Lions didn’t drop a set all year until a five-set thriller with Nebraska in the national semifinals. It’s been until this year’s Huskers that another team even sniffed that level of dominance.

Nebraska has lost just one set in league play this season - to UCLA on November 14. If the Huskers manage to sweep both Penn State and Ohio State this weekend, it would be the fewest sets lost by a Big Ten team going back to the ‘08 Nittany Lions. The unbeaten 2009 Penn State team dropped five sets to conference foes. Wisconsin, which went 15-0 in Big Ten matches during the Covid-19-shortened Spring 2021 season, lost three sets.

The first hint of the Huskers’ historic potential came in their first meeting with Penn State on Oct. 3. That night in State College, the Nittany Lions were reeling from the recent loss of setter Izzy Starck, who set them to last year’s national title as a freshman. Starck, seemingly physically healthy, stepped away from the Penn State program in late September and recently announced her intention to enter the transfer portal in December.

That night, Nebraska was a Big Red Buzzsaw, putting together the kind of dominant performance that yields a gawk-worthy box score. The Huskers hit .437 and sided out at 77 percent. Not that the Nittany Lions had that many chances to serve. Only three PSU players yielded kills - and only 16 at that. Penn State hit a program-worst -.114 with 10 more hitting errors than kills.

“We're not expecting that again,” Nebraska Coach Dani Busboom Kelly said on Tuesday. “Penn State's playing well right now. And you know, they still have great players. It's just we caught them on a night when they weren't their best, and we were super hungry and pretty emotional. So I think this game will be completely different. I expect them to be a little more balanced, and I think their setter is a little more comfortable now. So again, there's a lot different team than we played in October.”

The Nittany Lions have steadied, coming into Friday’s match off three straight victories, though each notably came in its home gym. Still, Penn State is just 6-6 in matches away from home in 2025. A Nebraska victory Friday would give the Nittany Lions their eighth Big Ten loss, which would set a new record for defeats in conference play since Penn State joined the league in 1991.

Regardless of Penn State’s uncharacteristically pedestrian record, the sight of the Nittany Lions never fails to stir the crowd at John Cook Arena, which you figure will be emotionally peaked on Friday with memories still fresh of Penn State’s comeback win in last year’s national semifinal.

“Penn State’s a great team. Obviously, there’s a lot of lore there, and we’re not ones to shy away from fun conversations,” Husker middle blocker Rebekah Allick said. “I think it’ll be a really good game. Just a really good atmosphere, too. The fans will be into it.

“Just a lot of hype around this match, and personally, I feel like this team does really well off that.”

History and rivalry. With another banner - or two - for season’s end.

Numbers to watch

.615 - Andi Jackson’s hitting percentage over her last six matches. Nebraska’s junior middle blocker leads the nation with a .467 attack percentage. Undoubtedly a first-team All-American and an outside shot at Big Ten Player of the Year.

.349 - Nebraska’s team hitting percentage, which also leads the nation - by more than 30 points over the next-best team, Wisconsin. The Huskers’ mark is on track to smash the previous school record and be the highest by a college team since Kentucky’s 2020 national title team hit .360.

70.2 - Nebraska’s sideout percentage, which, again, leads the country. This means the Huskers only allow opponents to score consecutive points on about 30 percent of their serves. That makes Nebraska almost impossible to build a lead against.

5 - The number of matches in Big Ten play in which Penn State outside hitter, and former Husker, Caroline Jurevicius has reached double-digit kills. Jurevicius has been inconsistent the year after switching from opposite to clear the way for superstar transfer Kennedy Martin. Penn State needs her to be effective to have any hope of beating her former club. She was pulled from the teams' October match after not recording a kill on five attempts.

.215 - The attack percentage of Husker opposite hitter Virginia Adriano in the first 15 matches of her Nebraska career.

.366 - Adriano’s attacking mark in her last 12 matches. The 6-foot-5 freshman from Italy has grown into a dangerous weapon, who on almost any other team would be getting 20 or 25 attempts per match. She’s only taken at least 20 swings in two matches this season.

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