The Blackshirts

Volleyball

No. 1 vs. No. 2: Nebraska Has Been in the Last Five of These

Six Nebraska volleyball players in white celebrating along the net, two of them high-fiving, in front of a packed red-clad crowd with Florida players in blue on the far side.
Photo courtesy Nebraska Athletics

Husker fans, tonight the season actually starts. Tomorrow it gets serious.

No. 1 Nebraska opens against UNLV at 7 p.m. CT on FS1, then plays No. 2 Texas on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. CT on FOX — both at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, in the first Players Era Volleyball Showcase.

Sunday is the one.

Nobody else gets these games

College volleyball has staged a No. 1 against a No. 2 about 43 times. The last five have all involved Nebraska.

Sunday is the fifth of those five, and the seventh time the Huskers have been in one. They are 3-3 in the previous six.

A few more from the file:

  • The No. 1 team is 28-14 all-time in these
  • They end in a sweep more often (15) than they go five (10)
  • This is the first 1-versus-2 since Nebraska played Wisconsin in 2023

Texas, of all teams

Nebraska leads the series 33-25 across 58 meetings.

The last one was the 2023 national championship, where Texas swept the Huskers in Tampa.

That is the game Sunday is measured against, whether anybody says so out loud or not.

What Nebraska is bringing

Last season was 33-1. The one loss came in the NCAA regional final, at home, 3-2, to the team that went on to win the whole thing.

Two numbers explain how they got there.

They led the country in hitting percentage and in opponent hitting percentage. No team had finished first nationally in both since at least 2014, the first season the NCAA tracked the second one. Nebraska hit .351 — a school record — and held opponents to .129.

And this one, which is faintly absurd: under Dani Busboom Kelly, Nebraska is 96-0 in sets when it reaches 20 points first. Not 96-3. Not close. Ninety-six and none.

Almost everything that produced it is back:

  • 98.3% of the assists
  • 93.8% of the service aces
  • 92.6% of the digs
  • 69.1% of the kills

Three of them are AVCA All-Americans — seniors Andi Jackson, Harper Murray and Bergen Reilly.

Tonight first

UNLV has never played Nebraska. Not once, in either program’s history.

The Huskers are 44-7 all time in season openers and have won the last seven straight, going back to a four-set loss to Florida in 2018.

Where they’re playing all this

Nebraska will have played in the home venues of four different professional leagues before it plays a single match at home this year.

The Cowboys’ stadium on Thursday. The Golden Knights’ arena this weekend. The Chicago Sky’s building against DePaul on Sept. 4, then the Cubs’ — Wrigley Field — against Missouri on Sept. 6.

Home is John Cook Arena at the Bob Devaney Sports Center now, renamed for the coach who won four national titles there, and still being rebuilt to hold 10,000.

Husker fans, the exhibition is over and it didn’t count. This one does. Seven o’clock tonight, and then the one everybody actually wants at 2:30 tomorrow.

  • Volleyball
  • Program