The Blackshirts

Volleyball

Nebraska Volleyball's 2026 Roster: A Senior at Every Position That Matters

Four Nebraska volleyball players in black uniforms celebrating together at the net, hands raised, in front of a packed arena.
Photo courtesy Nebraska Athletics

Husker fans, the Huskers open the season ranked No. 1 in the country — and for once the preseason poll isn’t a leap of faith. Look at the roster and you can see exactly why the coaches voted the way they did.

Nebraska took 57 of the first-place votes in the AVCA Preseason Coaches Poll, ahead of Texas, Kentucky, Pitt and Stanford. It’s the program’s 124th week at No. 1 all time — more than anyone else has ever managed.

Here’s what’s underneath it.

Four seniors, and look where they play

Nebraska has exactly four seniors on a 16-player roster. Now look at which four:

  • Bergen Reilly — setter
  • Laney Choboy — libero
  • Andi Jackson — middle blocker
  • Harper Murray — outside hitter

Setter. Libero. Middle. Outside. That is every position that runs a volleyball match, and a senior is standing in each one.

Think about what that means in a fifth set. The player deciding where the ball goes has seen it before. So has the one passing it, the one blocking in the middle, and the one you’re going to when there’s no other option.

Experience isn’t spread thin across this roster — it’s concentrated exactly where pressure lands.

And ten who are just getting started

Behind those four: seven sophomores and three freshmen. Ten of sixteen players are underclassmen.

That’s not a gap. That’s a program restocking while it’s on top.

The freshmen are not small, either — middle blocker Keoni Williams at 6-4, outside hitters Jayden Robinson at 6-3 and Gabby DiVita at 6-1. Nebraska didn’t bring in project players to sit for three years.

The front row is enormous

Every middle blocker on this roster is 6-3 or taller. Kenna Cogill and Williams both stand 6-4. Jackson and Manaia Ogbechie are 6-3.

The tallest player on the team is sophomore opposite Virginia Adriano at 6-5, from Turin, Italy.

And the shortest? Choboy, the senior libero, at 5-3 — which tells you everything about how differently that position is built.

Two Nebraskans, and that’s the point

Only two players call Nebraska home: Keri Leimbach of Lincoln Lutheran and Olivia Mauch of Bennington.

Compare that to the football team, where 31 of 115 players are from Nebraska. Different sport, completely different math.

Volleyball recruits nationally because it can. When you’re the program with more weeks at No. 1 than anyone in the country, players from Michigan, North Carolina, Arizona, Colorado and Italy come to you.

Husker fans, the poll says No. 1 and the roster agrees — veterans where it counts, size everywhere, and a sophomore class already waiting. Let’s see it.

  • Volleyball
  • Roster