Nebraska Volleyball at Penn State: 13-0, 44 Straight on the Line

No. 1 Nebraska volleyball is 13-0 with a 44-match regular-season winning streak, and the last regular-season match it lost was at Penn State on Nov. 29, 2024.

Thursday’s trip to No. 16 Penn State is the Huskers’ first Big Ten road match of 2026, and it asks whether that streak holds where the last loss happened. First serve is 6 p.m. CT on BTN, with Jason Knapp and Emily Ehman on the call.

What is on the line

Nebraska sits atop the AVCA Coaches Poll for the 129th week in program history, the most of any school, with 1,556 points to Pitt’s 1,531. The Huskers also carry a 20-match win streak in road and neutral-site matches, the longest in the country since UNI won 29 straight in 2010-11.

Head coach Dani Busboom Kelly is one win from 250 for her career. She is 249-45 in 10 seasons, and a win Thursday or Saturday at Maryland would make her the fourth-fastest coach to 250 in Division I women’s volleyball history, per Nebraska’s game notes. Setter Bergen Reilly is 15 assists from third on the program’s career list, at 4,111.

The history

Nebraska leads the series 30-13 through 43 meetings, but Penn State’s last two wins over the Huskers came 20 days apart in 2024. The Nittany Lions took the Nov. 29 regular-season match in four sets, then beat Nebraska again on Dec. 19 in the NCAA semifinal in Louisville, a match the Huskers led 2-0 in front of 21,726 people. Penn State went on to win the national title.

Nebraska has won both meetings since. It went 2-0 against the Nittany Lions last season, the last on Nov. 28, 2025, a sweep in which it held Penn State to 34 points across three sets, and to just six in one of them. Penn State is 2-5 against Nebraska under head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley.

The threat

Kennedy Martin is the name on the other side. The outside hitter has 1,798 career kills and 118 service aces, one of six Power Four players with at least 1,250 and 100. She was one of four unanimous picks to the Preseason All-Big Ten Team, alongside Nebraska seniors Andi Jackson, Harper Murray and Reilly. Last Saturday at Michigan she had 18 kills on .340 hitting in a 3-1 win that opened Penn State’s Big Ten schedule.

Penn State is 9-3 and 1-1 in the league, 6-1 at home, and hosting its first Big Ten match of the season. It is also swinging into the best block in the country. Nebraska leads the nation with an opposing hitting percentage of .078, has held eight of its 13 opponents under .100 and two of them below .000, and is the only team in the country holding opponents under .100.

The person

Nebraska’s answer in the middle is Andi Jackson, the AVCA and Big Ten Player of the Week after 30 kills on .578 hitting and 14 blocks in a 3-0 week against Missouri, Rutgers and Ohio State. She ranks third nationally at .490, and Manaia Ogbechie is 15th at .438, the only pair of teammates in the Power Four inside the top 15. Jackson’s season-high 14 kills on .632 hitting came in Nebraska’s sweep of Rutgers in the Big Ten opener.

Saturday brings Maryland, where the Huskers are 21-1 all-time and have won 21 in a row, streamed on B1G+ at 6 p.m. CT.

Husker Nation, Thursday at Penn State tells us whether a 44-match regular-season streak holds at the place where the last regular-season loss came.