Nebraska Volleyball Schedule 2026

2026 Season Outlook

Nebraska enters the 2026 season ranked No. 1 in the AVCA preseason coaches poll after a 33-1 campaign in Dani Busboom Kelly's first year as head coach. The Huskers went 30-0 in the regular season and 20-0 in Big Ten play — the third unbeaten regular season in program history, after 1994 and 2000 — before a five-set loss to eventual national champion Texas A&M in the NCAA Regional Final in Lincoln. Most of that rotation is back. Senior setter Bergen Reilly returns after a season in which she was named AVCA Setter of the Year and Big Ten Player of the Year, and senior outside hitter Harper Murray returns after a 25-kill performance in the regional final.

The 2026 schedule is built to test them early: nine matches against teams that finished in the 2025 AVCA top 25, five straight regular-season matches on the road to open the year, and a Big Ten slate that has been reformatted into a 17-match single round robin to make room for the conference's first postseason tournament.

Program History & Tradition

Few programs match Nebraska's sustained excellence. Five NCAA national championships (1995, 2000, 2006, 2015, 2017), 33 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, and the largest crowd in the history of women's sporting events — 92,003 at Memorial Stadium in 2023. Lincoln has been the gravitational center of the sport for three decades, producing All-Americans, Olympians, and a fanbase that routinely sells out the Devaney Center weeks in advance.

Head Coach Spotlight

Dani Busboom Kelly enters her second season as Nebraska's head coach. She was named the fourth head coach in program history on January 29, 2025, succeeding her former coach and mentor John Cook, who retired after 25 seasons. Her first year was one of the best debut seasons in the sport's history: Nebraska went 30-0 in the regular season and 20-0 in the Big Ten, dropping only seven sets all year and one in conference play. She was named both Big Ten Coach of the Year and AVCA West Region Coach of the Year, and became the first Big Ten head coach to win a conference championship in her inaugural season.

Busboom Kelly is a Nebraska native who was the starting libero on the Huskers' 2006 national championship team and an assistant coach on the 2015 title team. Before returning to Lincoln she spent eight seasons at Louisville, compiling a 203-44 record and taking the Cardinals to two NCAA championship matches, three semifinals, five regional finals and four ACC titles.

What to Watch in 2026

Circle the Players Era Showcase in Las Vegas, where Nebraska opens against UNLV on August 29 and long-time rival Texas on August 30, and the in-state rivalry with Creighton on September 16 at Pinnacle Bank Arena — the only regular-season match Nebraska plays there in 2026. Early October is the gauntlet: three straight road matches at Penn State, Maryland and Indiana, then Wisconsin at home before a trip to Northwestern. The regular season closes with Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota at the Devaney Center, and the first Big Ten Tournament follows November 20-25 in Fishers, Indiana.

Nebraska Volleyball 2026 Schedule Overview

Schedule and scores checked October 12, 2026 · Official source: huskers.com

Nebraska plays 28 regular-season matches in 2026 — 17 against Big Ten opponents and 11 in non-conference play — plus an exhibition showcase in August and the first-ever Big Ten Tournament in November. Nine of those matches come against teams that finished in the top 25 of the 2025 AVCA Coaches Poll. The season begins away from home. After the Red-White Scrimmage in August, the Huskers do not play a home match for nearly four weeks, opening with an exhibition at AT&T Stadium and then four regular-season road and neutral-site matches across Nevada, South Dakota and Illinois.

August starts with the inaugural Spikes Under the Lights exhibition showcase on August 27 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas — a four-team event with Nebraska, Florida, Penn State and SMU playing best-of-three semifinals and a championship for a $1 million prize pool. Because it is an exhibition, it does not count toward the Huskers’ record. The regular season begins two days later at the first Players Era Showcase at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, where Nebraska faces UNLV on August 29 and long-time rival Texas on August 30. September continues on the road at South Dakota State on September 2 — a homecoming for senior setter Bergen Reilly, a Sioux Falls native — followed by DePaul at Wintrust Arena on September 4.

The Missouri match originally scheduled for September 6 at Wrigley Field was suspended and rescheduled for September 23 at the Bob Devaney Sports Center in Lincoln. Nebraska finally plays at home on September 10, opening the Ameritas Players Challenge against New Mexico, with Baylor on September 11 and Georgia Tech on September 12. The in-state rivalry match against Creighton follows on September 16 at Pinnacle Bank Arena. The Husker Invitational brings North Carolina on September 18 and Florida Gulf Coast on September 20, followed by the rescheduled Missouri match on September 23 to close non-conference play.

Big Ten play opens at home against Rutgers on September 25 and Ohio State on September 26. October is the hardest month: three straight on the road at Penn State (October 1), Maryland (October 3) and Indiana (October 8), home for Wisconsin on October 10, back out to Northwestern on October 15, then three in a row at home — Purdue on October 17, UCLA on October 22 and USC on October 24 — before a Michigan road pair on October 30 and 31. November brings a West Coast trip to Oregon (November 7) and Washington (November 8) before the final home stand: Illinois on November 12, Iowa on November 14 and Minnesota on November 17, part of a new Big Ten format in which all teams play regional opponents on Tuesday in the final week. Nebraska has 15 regular-season home dates at the Bob Devaney Sports Center in 2026, plus the Creighton match at Pinnacle Bank Arena; nine of the Devaney dates are Big Ten matches, an uneven split under the new format that means Nebraska is scheduled for eight Big Ten home dates in 2027 in exchange.

Home opponents: New Mexico, Baylor, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Florida Gulf Coast, Missouri, Rutgers, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Purdue, UCLA, USC, Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota. The Big Ten has also restructured its volleyball schedule for 2026: the conference had used a 20-match format since 1991 and now plays a 17-match single round robin in which every team faces every other team once, making room for the first end-of-season Big Ten Tournament, held November 20-25 at the Fishers Event Center outside Indianapolis. The reformatted schedule guarantees a minimum of four split weekends and two travel-efficient trips per school, with matches Thursday through Sunday in October and Wednesday added to the competition week in November.