Nebraska 3 – UNLV 0: 25-18, 25-15, 25-16
The Huskers started their journey towards the 2026 National Championship against UNLV tonight in Las Vegas. They played their first real match tonight and got to experience yet another big stadium/arena in T-Mobile Arena where the Vegas Golden Knights play.
After the match was delayed about 30 minutes because of a race no one cares about, and a short segment about Nebraska’s 2025 spring match in Ord, it was time to play some volleyball, but wait a second, we
still had over 10 minutes to kill.
When the broadcasted finally started, we found out that UNLV star Jaida Harris has been dealing with a fractured hand for about a month and is wearing a cast. She still did play though, but only in the back row. She even got a kill in the first set.
Tom Brady was in attendance for tonight’s match as his daughter plays volleyball and he has also gotten to know Harper Murray. The arena was also very red. Now we would like to think it was all Nebraska, which most of it was, but UNLV is also red so pinpointing the different fans could’ve been tough.
We saw a few Huskers get their first minutes as a Husker. Keri Leimbach, Ryan Hunter, and Kenna Cogill were on the roster last year, but they all redshirted. Tonight, they got their first opportunity to get on the court during a real match in some late match roles for starters.
One freshman got into the match tonight as Keoni Williams took Manaia Ogbechie’s place once the Huskers hit the red zone in the 3rd set.
Skyler Pierce also got some playing time as well. She looked very good in the SMU match in Dallas on Thursday night so I am looking forward to her getting more minutes than last year if she can stay consistent as this has seemed to be one of her issues in the past.
The Huskers started off the match looking like the team we know and love. Both offense and defense were both looking seamless. After getting a good lead in the 1st though, and Andi Jackson rotated out, UNLV started to creep back into the set and our defense looked like it was breaking down.
Jackson took the floor again and the team immediately started to look like they did to start the match. This really shows how much of a game changer Jackson is on this Husker roster. Everything she does from her kills, to her blocks, and her amazing serve that she has been perfecting, is just flawless.
UNLV only led 2 different times in the match tonight: 2-0 to start the 2nd and 1-0 to start the 3rd. The Huskers played lights out defense the rest of the way through. They totaled 10 blocks on the night compared to UNLV’s 2.
Set 3 was a good set for the younger girls as they were given a lot of time playing an actual team and not just scrimmaging their own. DBK was probably trying to get them experience while also resting some of the girls for tomorrow just a little more. Bergen Reilly and Harper Murray were the only starters, besides our DS/L’s, that played the entire match.
Harper Murray led all hitters tonight with 11 kills. Teraya Sigler led the way through the first 2 sets, but was taken out halfway through the 3rd while Murray was left in to play 6 rotations. Sigler led the team hitting .467% and the team hit .337% for the match with the 2nd set being the worst, hitting .280%.
The Huskers held UNLV to hitting .054% in the match and even had them in the negative in the 2nd set. Their kills leader was Cami Christiansen with 6, but she only hit .125% tonight. They also had 2 girls, Basia Latos with 5 kills and Tia Traudt with 1 kill, hitting in the negative.
Nebraska will get their real first test of the season in only their 2 match tomorrow afternoon as they will renew their rivalry with #2 Texas. The Longhorns will be in for a tough battle against TCU tonight.
Tomorrow’s showdown begins at 2:30pm CST at T-Mobile Arena and will probably be one of the most viewed games this season when it is all said and done. GBR!!
