Nebraska volleyball aims for redemption with 2026 season

[ASFN Admin]

Nebraska volleyball met with the media in the run-up to the team's Red-White scrimmage on Sunday. Seniors Andi Jackson, Harper Murray and Bergen Reilly expressed their excitement for the upcoming 2026 season.

Jackson enters her senior season after being named the AVCA Middle Blocker of the Year and receiving First-Team All-American honors. She led the nation with a .467 attack percentage, the third-best in a single season in program history. In Big Ten play last season, Jackson totaled a .559 attack percentage in conference matches, breaking the Big Ten record for attack percentage in conference-only matches set in 2008.Murray also earned AVCA All-American and All-Big Ten First Team honors after leading the Huskers with a career-best 3.54 kills per set on a career-high .295 attack percentage. She also led the team in aces with 34. Murray also entered the top 20 in school history for career kills, finishing with 1,181 career kills, which ranks 19th all-time in school history and 10th in the rally-scoring era.

Reilly rounds out the trio by also coming off a First-Team All-American season. She was also named AVCA Setter of the Year, Big Ten Player of the Year, and Big Ten Setter of the Year last season. She is just the second-ever Husker to win Big Ten Player of the Year and the second player in Big Ten history to be named Big Ten Setter of the Year three times.

While speaking with the press, Reilly said the team has unfinished business after last year's upset loss in the NCAA tournament, but it can't let last year weigh on them mentally.

"Yeah, I think every year is you just have to come in with a new-year mindset, and of course, after last year, like we had a sour taste in our mouth, but we have a new team this year, a new opportunity to go out and just prove ourselves and show what we can do. So, um, I mean, obviously we have a chip on our shoulder from last year, but we also can't let it weigh us down."

Harper Murray believes the scrimmage gives the team a chance to work on new concepts and figure out what can be fixed as a team before the season starts.

"Yeah, we're excited. I think Red-White's a fun time for us to, like, show off what we've been working on, and we've obviously had a lot of practices, and we have more coming up in the next few weeks. So, we're excited, and we still have a lot to work on, but that's kind of like the point of Red-White: to get all those kinks out and see what we can work on as a team and what we know about each other."

Nebraska's Red-White scrimmage will air on Saturday, Aug. 16 at 3 p.m. CT at Pinnacle Bank Arena on Nebraska Public Media. The season starts with an exhibition against the Florida Gators on Thursday, Aug. 27 at AT&T Stadium.

The Huskers are ranked No. 1 in the AVCA-Taraflex Division I WVB Preseason Poll, which was released Monday. The Huskers stand at No. 1 by an overwhelming margin, receiving 141 more adjusted points than Texas, which sits at No. 2.

Nebraska also earned 57 first-place points, with Kentucky receiving the second-most, at just four. The Huskers finished last season 33-1, falling to Texas A&M in the Regional Finals and enter year two of the Dani Busboom Kelly era.

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This article originally appeared on Cornhuskers Wire: Nebraska volleyball aims for redemption with 2026 season

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