LINCOLN, Neb. — The trajectory looks identical. The numbers for Nebraska’s top-ranked volleyball team in 2026 tell a story similar to a year ago, when the Huskers stayed undefeated until the round of eight in the NCAA Tournament.
Thursday night, they swept UCLA, a top-16 team entering the week, before a full house of more than 10,000 at the Devaney Center.
Nebraska is 20-0 and 9-0 in league play. It spends more, earns more and attracts more attention than any team in the history of collegiate volleyball. Mike Tirico of NBC Sports and his wife, Debbie, family friends of Nebraska star Harper Murray, attended the match Thursday.
A top seed awaits Nebraska in December. The Huskers lead Division I in hitting percentage and opponent hitting percentage, a feat not accomplished — after the NCAA began tracking defensive efficiency in 2014 — until Nebraska did it last season.
Its dominance can get a bit boring.
“When we’re clicking,” second-year coach Dani Busboom Kelly said, “we can be pretty unstoppable.”
But a cautionary reminder hangs in the air at their home arena, which doubles as the Huskers’ practice gym. It was there that last season crashed to an end, painfully short of the Final Four for Nebraska, with a five-set loss against Texas A&M.
The Huskers’ core pieces remain from 2025. No one transferred in or out. They lost four seniors and added three freshmen. The roster is more seasoned, deeper and seemingly more equipped to win amid chaos. Nebraska has markedly improved at the service line. The four seniors are more motivated after losing to the eventual national champion in three consecutive seasons.
What will get the Huskers over that hurdle this year?
Little achievements matter.
“It’s not just A to B,” said Murray, one of four Huskers on the watch list for AVCA player of the year. “It’s not like we go to practice and win a natty. People are not going to see the little wins in our gym.”
The competition this year is fierce, led by Pitt, No. 2 in the Division I committee’s initial top 16, and two-time national player of the year Olivia Babcock. Kentucky, Wisconsin, Florida, SMU and Louisville and Texas all pose real threats to Nebraska in the postseason.
The Huskers believe that an approach focused less on a winning streak — it sits at 51 consecutive matches in the regular season — and more on daily actions will prepare them when a challenge to their title run inevitably arrives.
A look at what Nebraska is trying to accomplish:
• Chase the ceiling. Coach Busboom Kelly noted early that this team began with more room to grow than the 2025 group. That was intentional. Nebraska started lower in order to raise the ceiling and to pace its progress. What’s the point of playing your best in October?
“Just because we won a game doesn’t mean we played our best,” setter Bergen Reilly said. “Dani’s talked about it too. There’s a lot more upside to this team than there maybe has been in other years.”
The Huskers have dropped just four sets in 20 matches.
“It’s really kind of an internal battle of holding ourselves to that standard and not letting the standard fall just because we’re winning,” Reilly said.
Do yourself a favor and watch this rally!!!🤯 #GBR
📺: FS1 pic.twitter.com/eo61HPGTjB
— Nebraska Volleyball (@HuskerVB) October 23, 2026
• Set benchmarks to gauge progress. Statistics tell a story. So does the drive to get better. Many of the Huskers are pushing themselves this year to add new elements to their play. Reilly, the reigning Big Ten player of the year, feeds a diverse group of attackers on offense. Each hitter requires a different type of set to most effectively swing. It’s up to Reilly to deliver in the heat of competition.
“They need each other to be great,” Kelly said.
The coach and her staff evaluate the players’ mindsets to assess growth more than the results.
“We get to see them and feel their moods and vibes throughout the week, every week, and we’re with them every single day,” she said. “So you can kind of tell when somebody’s feeling confident and when they’re not. And I feel like this team is getting more and more confident, which is really exciting.”
• Trust the seniors to lead. Murray, Reilly, middle blocker Andi Jackson and defensive specialist Laney Choboy are 119-6 with three Big Ten titles in their careers. The Huskers largely go as they go, even with the emergence as stars of sophomores Manaia Ogbechie and Teraya Sigler.
The senior class rates among the most successful in Nebraska history. Their impact through social media and NIL ventures is felt across women’s sports.
But they’ve yet to win the big one. The most recent of Nebraska’s five national championships came in 2017, a reality not lost on the seniors.
“It’s easy for our team to feel like we’re chasing other people’s expectations,” Murray said. “Everyone else expects Nebraska to win. But we have to approach it differently. We have to find that balance.”
• Stay hungry throughout. What does that look like? Ask Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield, whose No. 6-ranked Badgers lost 25-23, 25-14, 25-20 at Nebraska on Oct. 10.
Blockers and attackers at the net did their jobs well for the Huskers. Sheffield was left in awe by their “defensive tenacity.”
“It was far superior to ours,” he said. “I thought they were relentless in their pursuit of keeping the ball off the ground at a level that I don’t know if I’ve seen from anybody in a while.”
Credit Choboy and libero Olivia Mauch. Choboy, in particular, “gives nobody an excuse not to match” her effort to extend points, Kelly said.
“Our depth and this team are really hungry. We understand there’s still more left in the tank, and nobody is satisfied. The Big Ten is better than last year, so you can’t take anybody lightly.”
Dani Busboom Kelly on the energy of @HuskerVB so far this season 🙌#B1GTodaypic.twitter.com/2kQY9X9rdt
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) October 14, 2026
“I think it just kind of feels different,” Mauch said, “like we want it more than we ever have.”
The Huskers ask this of themselves: “What does the team need from me that only I can provide?”
Sixteen answers, in their grand plan, equate to one trophy raised in December.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Nebraska Cornhuskers, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Nebraska Cornhuskers, College Sports, Women's College Sports
2026 The Athletic Media Company