Three Things to Watch in Nebraska vs. Pitt at the AVCA First Serve Showcase

Serving and passing, Nebraska's second outside hitter, and oh yeah, slowing down the reigning National Player of the Year.

Pitt opposite hitter Olivia Babcock was named the AVCA National Player of the Year in 2024 after averaging 4.7 kills per set as a sophomore. | Courtesy Pitt Athletics

After meeting in the Final Four in 2021 and 2023, it seemed we were on track to get a third bite at the apple between Nebraska and Pittsburgh in the Final Four last December. The two No. 1 seeds appeared to be on a collision course to meet in the national championship match in Louisville.

But when both teams suffered a shock defeat in their respective national semifinals - Nebraska couldn’t put away Penn State despite holding a 2-1 set lead and being up 22-16 in Game 4, and Pitt lost to Louisville despite 33 kills from National Player of the Year Olivia Babcock - the highly anticipated Pitt-Nebraska showdown would have to wait.

Not long, however. The teams, each highly expected to challenge for another Final Four berth, will open the 2025 season in a blockbuster at Pinnacle Bank Arena on Friday at 6 p.m. (FOX). 

Both teams return All-American stars, but have their own questions to answer with new players, key departures, and, in Nebraska’s case, a new head coach.

Here are three things to watch for in Friday’s season opener.

What can Nebraska do against Olivia Babcock?

Can the Huskers do what few teams were able to do last year and slow the 6-foot-4 dynamo, who can score from any spot on the floor, including the service line, with a devastating topspin jump serve?

Babcock averaged 4.72 kills per set in 2024. That's a lot. | Courtesy Pitt Athletics

Babcock actually started pretty slow last season. She hit .000 in Pitt’s season opener vs. Oregon and didn’t reach double-digit kills until the Panthers’ fourth match.

She then proceeded to reach double figures in 29 of Pitt’s final 32 matches of the year. 

Nebraska may start 6-foot-5 senior Taylor Landfair at outside hitter in order to match Landfair’s block up against Babcock when Babcock is in the front row. But Babcock can go over most blocks, so the Huskers better be ready to dig some balls and try to run points of their own when Babcock is in her three back-row rotations.

The key to defending an elite player like Babcock? Discipline, according to NU senior middle blocker Rebekah Allick.

Nebraska middle blocker Rebekah Allick celebrates after the red team won the third set of the Red-White Scrimmage. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

“Everyone wants the big, flashy block, but at the end of the day, if you just do your job, naturally, the ball will find you because she can only hit so far (in bounds),” Allick said. “If you can take care of your space, naturally, your defense will fill around it. The hardest part is just being disciplined and not trying to do too much.”

Also, you’ve got to get Babcock off the service line and not allow Pitt to run off three or four points each time she serves. Easier said than done.

Like many dominant players, Babcock will probably get hers. Nebraska needs to keep every other Panther under control. 

With the departure of outside hitter Torrey Stafford, who transferred to Texas in the offseason, Pitt will have some unproven players at their outside hitter positions. The Huskers need to keep junior Blaire Bayless (who had 18 kills in the Panthers’ intrasquad scrimmage last weekend) and either Sophia Gregoire (an Oregon transfer) or Marina Pezelj (a freshman from Monaco) from going off. 

Who wins the serve-and pass battle?

It’s a point of pride at Nebraska to be one of the country’s best passing and ball-handling teams each year. That seems like it will be a continued emphasis under new coach Dani Busboom Kelly. 

But Pitt can provide a challenge from the service line despite losing some of its top servers from last year. This year’s Panthers may feature up to three jump-servers in the lineup. We know one will be Babcock, who was third in the nation last year in aces per set.

Nebraska Volleyball Head Coach Dani Busboom Kelly during the Red-White Scrimmage. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Busboom Kelly’s Louisville team faced Pitt three times in 2024, dropping both regular-season meetings before knocking off the Panthers in the national semifinals. From what she knows of the Panthers’ scouting report, Pitt could be an even tougher serving team this season.

 “They’re probably sick of me talking about Pitt and the way they play,” Busboom Kelly said. “I’ve been beating it into these guys that we have to be ready for a great serving team, a team that’s super gritty, a team that makes it very, very difficult to kill balls. We’ve done some drills this week to hopefully get us in that mindset.”

Nebraska DS/Libero Laney Choboy and the Husker back line will be challenged by Pitt's serving. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Let’s get a little nerdy on serving and passing for a sec. One metric to determine whether or not a team out-serves and out-passes its opponent is Good Pass Percentage. A “Good Pass” in this case is one that allows your setter to run an in-system offense with all of their hitting options available.

In 2024, Pitt’s passers had a Good Pass Percentage of 54.4% according to Volleymetrics. That’s good, not great. Coaches ideally want to be closer to 60% to be a great passing team. However, Pitt’s collective serving was so strong that its opponents had only a 44.4% GP%. That’s…insanely low.

It means Pitt’s opponents were served out of system well more than half the time the ball went into play in 2024. The net difference for Pitt in GP% was 10 points! That will win you a lot of matches.

Nebraska wasn’t too shabby itself. The Huskers actually had a higher GP% at 59.6%, pretty close to the team’s 60% goal, thanks to excellent passers like departed libero Lexi Rodriguez, Harper Murray and Olivia Mauch. Opponents passed at a 51.7% GP% - a net advantage for Nebraska of +7.9%.

Nebraska outside hitter Harper Murray spikes the ball during the Red-White Scrimmage. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Will those trends carry over to a new season? Not guaranteed. Pitt has to replace all of its primary passers after Stafford’s transfer and the graduation of several other players.

The Panthers will start either freshman Izzy Masten or Florida State transfer Emery Dupes at libero Friday. And all of their starting outsides will have limited experience. Stafford is not a primary passer.

Nebraska, however, brings back experience in the backcourt. Junior Laney Choboy is likely to start at libero, but Mauch, who will be a defensive specialist, is statistically better in serve receive. 

Individual passing can be measured on a 3-point or 4-point scale (Nebraska prefers the 4-point system). Murray, one of the nation’s best returning passing outside hitters, passed at a 2.49 out of 4 last year. Anything around a 2.5 or 2.6 is very good. Last year, Rodriguez passed an exceptional 2.63.

Will it matter? It doesn’t always. Remember, serve receive is the first step in a three-step process to get a kill. The other two steps are equally important. Nebraska out-passed Penn State in last year’s Final Four (56.8% to 52.4%), but couldn’t put balls away when it mattered after handily winning the first two sets.

Like in every other sport, the only stat that tells the whole story is final score. Ask Nebraska football. 

Can Nebraska get points from its 2nd OH spot?

Murray is a lock to start at one outside hitter spot, but the Huskers need its second outside to produce kills, too. 

In the spring and preseason practices, it’s been a competition between Landfair, in her sixth college season, and freshman Teraya Sigler, the No. 1-ranked outside hitter in the recruiting class of 2025.

Nebraska outside hitter Taylor Landfair is entering her 2nd season with the Huskers, and sixth college season overall. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Neither player stood out offensively in the Huskers’ Red-White scrimmage and last weekend’s Alumni Match. Landfair put away nine kills on 34 attacks (a 26% kill percentage) in the exhibitions, while Sigler was slightly better at 28% (16 kills on 58 attempts).

After the Alumni Match, Busboom Kelly seemed to tip her hand on Landfair getting the start, but largely because of her blocking presence. The Minnesota transfer will likely play in the front row only, and we could see Sigler, a skilled passer who has an effective back-row attack, come in for the three back-row rotations.

Nebraska outside hitter Teraya Sigler receives a serve during the Red-White Scrimmage. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

The name of the game is still putting points on the board, and Nebraska has room to improve on the margins over last season. In 2024, Landfair converted 36.5% of her attacks into kills, while competing much of the season with Lindsay Krause, who scored at a 35.7% rate. 

Get your second outside to raise that even a point or two, and you have something cooking. Nebraska hasn’t had a team hitting percentage (Kills - Errors / Total Attacks) of .300 or better since 2007.

You don’t need to reach .300 to win the national title - neither of Nebraska’s 2015 or 2017 NCAA title teams did - but it would signal the next step in an improved offense that came up short in crunch time in last season’s Final Four.

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