The Nebraska Volleyball Road Show Heads to Chadron

To wrap up a busy spring, Nebraska will head west.

The Huskers are taking their annual in-state road show almost as far away from Lincoln as possible. NU will face Northern Colorado on April 25 at the Chicoine Center on Chadron State College.

The exhibition marks the second time NU will play in the Panhandle in recent history. The Huskers last visited the area in 2009, when they lost to Wichita State in five sets at Western Nebraska Community College in Scottsbluff.

Tickets will go on sale March 26 at 6 p.m. with in-person sales at Don Beebe Stadium. Tickets are $30 and will be general admission except for a limited number of $50 courtside seats. The match will also be broadcast on Nebraska Public Media.

After only playing one spring exhibition in the last decade of the John Cook era, the Huskers played two in their first spring under Dani Busboom Kelly. This year, NU will play three, one fewer than the NCAA maximum.

The Huskers kick off the spring season on April 11 against Iowa State at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D., which sold out in minutes. The following Friday, Nebraska then faces Creighton at D.J. Sokol Arena on April 17. Only general admission tickets remained available as of Friday morning.

On Mountain time in the 308! ⛰️

The Huskers will face Northern Colorado for a spring match in Chadron on April 25!

🎟️ℹ️: https://t.co/zNPNm9tayV pic.twitter.com/GFIfIt5Zqq
— Nebraska Volleyball (@HuskerVB) March 13, 2026

NU coach Dani Busboom Kelly said she’s looking forward to playing in a part of the state where the Huskers haven’t been in a while and playing in front of packed gyms.

“Getting out to western Nebraska, and I know we haven’t been out that far in a long time, so we’re looking forward to getting out there,” NU coach Dani Busboom Kelly said on the latest episode of the Volleyball State podcast. “When you have your full team, it’s well worth it to take advantage of these opportunities to play in front of crowds and get some of those jitters out so it doesn’t feel like their first game in August.”

Busboom Kelly said the people at the Sanford Pentagon had talked to them for several years about hosting a match, but it didn’t work out until next year. The match will also serve as a homecoming for senior setter Bergen Reilly, a Sioux Falls native.

In addition, the fan base is familiar with the area as both the men’s and women’s basketball teams played games there in November.

“They have great club volleyball there, and a lot of great young players,” Busboom Kelly said. “It made it (an) easy (decision) with how short it is and how easy it is to get there. I know the basketball team loved playing there this year.”

After wrapping up the beach season with matches in Florida next week, Nebraska will quickly convert to indoor practices. The Huskers haven’t ignored the hard court this spring. The players have been spending up to four hours a week with the coaches on skill instruction.

However, once indoor practice begins, the Huskers will no longer have access to the Devaney Center. While the arena is undergoing renovations to increase capacity to 10,000, NU will be displaced from its home gym for the next few months.

The locker room is already under construction, and several sections of seating in the upper bowl have been removed. The remodeling will ramp up next week after the boys' state basketball tournament wraps up and the venue is done hosting events.

“That will be a little adversity for us,” Busboom Kelly said. “I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing, but with any new renovation, you have to go through a little pain to get the end result.”

While the Huskers will have to use other gyms in Lincoln for practices, Busboom Kelly said they didn’t look into playing a match in Lincoln since they were already talking to other venues for exhibitions. Because the beach season runs so deep into March, they opted to keep the schedule at three matches.

“We’ve talked about adding a fourth, and just felt like it was a lot of travel this spring and a lot compacted into a short amount of time when you looked at our schedule, so we just kept it at three matches,” she said.

Nebraska Spring Match History Outside Lincoln/Omaha

Year	Host City	Facility	Attendance	Opponent	Result
2025	Ord	Ord High School	1,750	South Dakota State	W 4-0
2024	Kearney	University of Nebraska-Kearney	5,094	Denver	W 3-0
2023	Central City	Central City High School	2,096	Wichita State	W 3-0
2022	Grand Island	Heartland Events Center	6,117	Kansas	W 3-1
2019	McCook	Mid-Plains Community College	1,750	Colorado State	W 3-1
2017	Kearney	Kearney High School	2,040	Colorado State	W 3-0
2015	Grand Island	Heartland Events Center	6,006	Kansas State	W 3-0
2014	Wayne	Wayne State	2,050	Creighton	W 3-0
2012	Norfolk	Northeast Community College	2,000	North Dakota State	W 3-0
2011	Grand Island	Heartland Events Center	5,522	Wichita State	W 3-2
2009	Scottsbluff	Western Nebraska Community College	2,400	Wichita State	L 3-2
2007	North Platte	North Platte High School	2,400	Wichita State	W 3-0