Nebraska Volleyball Position Breakdown

And competition at several spots puts a bright spotlight on the Aug. 9 Red-White match, Nebraska’s annual preseason, intrasquad scrimmage that often carries as much pressure as a regular-season match. 

Here’s a breakdown of Nebraska’s players at each position.

Outside hitter

Returners: Harper Murray (Jr.), Taylor Landfair (Sr.), Skyler Pierce (R-Fr.)

Newcomers: Teraya Sigler (Fr.)

Murray has one of the starting spots locked down and is looking to make another jump from her 2024 season, where she was named a second-team All-American. She led NU with 3.4 kills per set last year and hit .257. If she can get up to about 3.8 kps and a .270 hitting percentage, she could be a first-team All-American.

A six-rotation player since her freshman season, Murray is also the Huskers’ best-passing pin hitter. She handled a team-high 601 serves last year and had a 59% good pass percentage. Anything approaching 60% for a pin hitter is pretty solid. In comparison, Lexi Rodriguez, Nebraska’s exceptional libero, had a 65% good pass percentage in 2024. 

From here, it gets interesting. Landfair, in her final six years of college eligibility, is looking to hold onto a starting job she held for most of last season. She still hasn’t regained the form of when she was named 2022 Big Ten Player of the Year at Minnesota, but could she get to 3 kills per set and hit .240? Efficiency has been her struggle the last two seasons, in which she’s hit a combined .219. She needs to perform strong early to win the job, because if all things are equal, Nebraska has every incentive to go younger at the position.

If Landfair can’t stake a claim to the second OH spot, it opens the door for the highlights of Nebraska’s last two recruiting classes. Pierce, who redshirted last year, was the nation’s No. 1-ranked OH recruit in the Class of 2024. Sigler earned the same honor from PrepDig in 2025 and is ahead of her years as a back-row player. Her passing and back-row offense may give her an edge.

Middle blocker

Returners: Rebekah Allick (Sr.), Andi Jackson (Jr.)

Newcomers: Manaia Ogbechie (Fr.), Kenna Cogill (Fr.)

The one position where the Huskers seem pretty settled. Allick was third in the Big Ten with 1.4 blocks per set last year and hit a career-best .357. She’s also emerged as a vocal and passionate leader who could earn her a captain spot in her senior year.

Allick alone would give most teams a respectable MB unit, but the Huskers have an X-factor few teams can boast with her counterpart Andi Jackson, a jaw-dropping athlete who can go over the top of most opposing blockers. Jackson exploded as a sophomore last season, being named a first-team All-American after hitting .439, the fourth-best mark in school history.

In Nebraska’s spring exhibition against Kansas, the Huskers unveiled a wrinkle where they set Jackson the ball in the back row after she stayed in the match to serve, and she left the Devaney Center speechless with a crushing kill. If Nebraska continues to force Jackson the ball in 2025, she could make a run at the school record for hitting percentage (.473 from Tracy Stalls in 2007) and have one of the best all-around seasons ever by an NU middle.

Nebraska’s two freshman middles might have to wait their turn, but there’s plenty to be excited about in Ogbechie and Cogill. Whispers have already started about Ogbechie’s tantalizing athleticism - she jump-touched 10-foot, 4-inches as a high school sophomore. One day, she could end up playing on either pin. 

Cogill was the latest addition to Nebraska’s 2025 recruiting class. Originally committed to Oregon, she flipped to NU after Ducks coach Matt Ulmer took the Kansas job. She was teammates with Sigler on one of the country’s best club teams, Arizona Storm, which won back-to-back club national titles.

Setter

Returner: Bergen Reilly (Jr.)

Newcomer: Campbell Flynn (Fr.)

Does Nebraska have a by-goodness setter competition? It’s hard to tell as practices get underway, but if anyone was going to challenge the two-time Big Ten Setter of the Year in Reilly, it could be Flynn.

Nebraska has reached the Final Four twice under Reilly, who set the Huskers to a .284 attack percentage last season. A calm operator who does everything pretty good, including back-row defending, Reilly’s next step is to unleash Nebraska’s attackers to their full potential. 

Can she get the Huskers to a .300 hitting mark for the first time in nearly two decades? Can she continue to refine her connection with her middles and right-side hitters?

Flynn, the top-rated setter nationally in the Class of 2025, got plenty of time in Nebraska’s two spring exhibitions against Kansas and South Dakota State, running the offense with aplomb. 

A 6-foot-3 lefty, Flynn adds a new element to the Husker attack with authoritative attacking skills of her own, giving opposing blockers one more thing to worry about. Even if she doesn’t unseat Reilly as the starter, she’s unlikely to redshirt. This could be Nebraska’s most-competitive setter battle since 2013 when Mary Pollmiller and Kelly Hunter split time early in a 6-2 offense before Pollmiller eventually took over in a 5-1.

Busboom Kelly oversees the setters directly and won’t have a previous history with either Reilly or Flynn to consider. I don’t think Nebraska will run a 6-2 full time, but both should play. 

Opposite hitter

Returners: None

Newcomers: Allie Sczech (Sr.-transfer from Baylor), Ryan Hunter (Fr.), Virginia Adriano (Soph, sorta?, Italy)

NU’s most intriguing position battle as fall camp starts. The Huskers graduated All-American Merritt Beason, but it’s honestly not too big of an ask for this position to exceed Beason’s 2024 output, which declined sharply in November and December.

With Hunter coming off a knee injury suffered in high school, Nebraska went out and landed Sczech, a transfer from Baylor, at the end of the 2024 season, as the presumptive 2025 starter (at the time).

Sczech (pronounced “Check”) was second-team All-Big 12 last year in Waco, averaging 2.4 kills per set and hitting .273. Decent numbers, but she turned heads in Baylor’s two NCAA tournament matches, in which she hit .508. In the Bears’ five-set loss to Dayton in the second round, Sczech had 21 kills and hit .463.  A small sample size, yes, but Nebraska is betting they can make use of a 6-4 lefty at opposite.

Or, maybe a 6-foot-5 righty? Before April, no casual Nebraska volleyball fan had ever heard the name Virginia Adriano, but the Huskers had been recruiting her since before Busboom Kelly took over the program.

If Adriano lives up to the promise her brief professional and Italian youth national team highlights show, it could be NU assistant coach Jaylen Reyes’ biggest recruiting win.

You can picture the eye rolls of fans of other programs. Nebraska, which already reels in top-3 recruiting classes annually and is a major player in the transfer portal every year, went out and signed a European professional. It’s going to happen more and more in NCAA volleyball.

Adriano got major court time for the pro club Bergamo, which finished eighth in Italy’s top division, widely considered the best pro league in the world. This is like your favorite college basketball team signing the seventh man off the Orlando Magic. You’ll take it.

The Italian fits the mold of a dynamic pro opposite hitter. Long, lean, powerful. At Big Ten Media Days, Allick said Adriano is a very good blocker. She’s got range on her shots, meaning she can mix it up to hit line, cross court, tool the block, and go off-speed. In international volleyball, the opposite’s job is to score points. Nebraska has the back-row depth to let her focus on that. 

Hunter could be the wild card. Now fully recovered from her knee injury, she shined in Nebraska’s spring exhibition vs Kansas with 11 kills. Her athleticism is undeniable, but her consistency reportedly needs work. 

Libero and defensive specialist

Returners: Laney Choboy (Jr.), Olivia Mauch (Soph.), Maisie Boesiger (Sr.)

Newcomer: Keri Leimbach (Fr.)

The libero battle to replace Lexi Rodriguez, who is currently fighting to make the Team USA roster for August’s World Championships, could be the most hotly contested of fall camp.

Choboy and Mauch both played extensively last season as defensive specialists. Whichever one doesn’t earn the libero jersey figures to have the same role in 2025. But at Nebraska, wearing the off-color shirt means something special, with the legacy of Rodriguez, Kenzie Maloney, Olympic gold medalist Justine Wong-Orantes, and even back to the playing days of their new head coach, who was one of Nebraska’s first at the position.

It might come down to which skill - floor defense or serve receive - Busboom Kelly prioritizes more. Mauch’s passing numbers were better in 2024 (61.4% good pass compared to Choboy’s 56.4%). Choboy’s boundless energy manifests itself in the occasional diving, spectacular dig. Though the pair’s dig numbers were basically even last season.

The edge could go to Choboy’s emotional lift. It’s hard to find a more demonstrative player, and if she and Mauch play to a draw, Choboy’s on-court fire could be the decisive spark the Huskers need.

Boesiger and Leimbach have their strengths, but this season, both will likely be looked to for depth. Though, if one of them proves to have a tough serve, they could earn a role as a serving substitute.