Husker volleyball closed out their non-conference portion of the season on Wednesday night as they played their rescheduled match against Missouri. Even though the match wasn’t played at Wrigley Field, like it was supposed to be, it still felt like a baseball themed night.
The Huskers wore their baseball-themed jerseys again for the occasion and they also played all sorts of music that would be played at a ball park. Their scoreboard also had a baseball theme going as well. The teams still had fun
even under the circumstances.
In the middle of the 2nd set, sophomore Teraya Sigler went down with what could’ve been either a knee or ankle injury. How did she do this you ask? She slipped while trying to transition. Of course she had to slip because it wouldn’t have been the Wrigley Field match if someone didn’t slip.
She was out the rest of the match, but came and sat with the team halfway through the 3rd set, wearing street clothes. She was wearing a boot on her foot which confirmed that it was some sort of lower leg/foot injury. Hopefully she is back soon, but in the mean time, Skyler Pierce seems to be getting the nod to take over for her right now.
Rutgers Scarlet Knights
2025 Record: 12-20
2025 Conference Record: 3-17 (B1G)
Last NCAA Tournament Appearance: 1982 (Lost to Purdue in First Round)
Rutgers has had a pretty tough run in the B1G ever since they joined in 2014. Since joining the conference, they have only 103 wins in the past 12 years. To put that in prospective for you, the 4 Husker seniors of Harper Murray, Laney Choboy, Andi Jackson, and Bergen Reilly had 99 wins together going into this season. That is only through 3 seasons too.
Rutgers’ B1G record looks even worse as they have only won 17 conference matches in 12 years. They went 0-20 in their first season, in 2014, and only won 1 match in 2015, beating Maryland in 2015. They would go winless in the conference again for the next 3 seasons. They finally won 2 conference matches against Northwestern and Iowa in 2019. They would only have one more winless conference season, in 2021, up until now.
Regardless of Rutgers’ history, the 2026 team has seemed to start off on the right foot. They are 9-3, after the non-conference slate, and are undefeated at home, posting a 4-0 record. Their first loss came in their first match of the season against Purdue Fort Wayne, which is a match they shouldn’t have dropped, if you ask them.
Their other 2 losses came against a Vanderbilt team, who has looked very good so far this season, and Penn, who is currently 8-2 this season. The Scarlet Knights have yet to post a quality win this season yet. Some people may look at their Arkansas win as one, but Arkansas hasn’t been that good since 2023.
The Scarlet Knights were picked to finish 17th out of 18 teams in the B1G this season. Maryland is the only team below them in the 18th spot. They also didn’t place anyone on the Preseason All-Conference Team. Rutgers is trying to change their fate this year and maybe pull some upsets on teams they never have before.
RS Sophomore MB/RS Mira McCool has proven to be one of their top players this season so far. She has 125 kills and is averaging 2.60 kills/set. She also has 31 blocks which is part of the top 5 on the Scarlet Knights roster. RS-Junior OH Skylar George is also one of their top players with 106 kills.
Aspen Maxwell, Karis Willow, and Imani Howell round out their offensive powers. Maxwell and Willow are both outsides while Howell is a middle blocker with Junior Natalie Robinson. Howell leads the team in blocks with 55 and also has 85 kills this season.
You may recognize the name Karis Willow. Willow played 4 seasons with Penn State before transferring after the end of last season. Husker fans know her well after they gave her a lot of shit online after seeing her way of serving a couple seasons ago. Willow has had more of a role at Rutgers with 85 kills, with 2.18 kills/set, and hitting .248%.
The Scarlet Knights have a couple Nebraska natives on their roster as well who will be returning home on Friday. Senior DS/L Kenzie Dyrstad and Freshman DS/L Kami Dyrstad are from Papillion, NE. Kenzie has played all 4 seasons at Rutgers while her sister Kami just joined her this season. Kenzie is the teams libero while Kami has only gotten 24 sets of play so far this season.
Friday’s match will begin at 7:00pm CST at the Bob Devaney Center and will be televised on the Nebraska Public Media (PBS) channel. You can also stream it on B1G+ if you choose.
#1 Nebraska Cornhuskers (11-0)
#1 Keri Leimbach 5’4” SO DS/L
#2 Bergen Reilly 6’1” SR Setter
#3 Virginia Adriano 6’5” SO OPP
#4 Campbell Flynn 6’3” SO Setter
#6 Laney Choboy 5’3” SR DS/L
#8 Kenna Cogill 6’4” SO MB
#10 Olivia Mauch 5’6” JR DS/L
#11 Teraya Sigler 6’3” SO OH
#14 Manaia Ogbechie 6’3” SO MB
#15 Andi Jackson 6’3” SR MB
#17 Keoni Williams 6’4” FR MB
#18 Ryan Hunter 6’2” SO OPP
#20 Jayden Robinson 6’3” FR OH
#21 Skyler Pierce 6’2” JR OH
#23 Gabby DiVita 6’1” FR OH
#27 Harper Murray 6’2” SR OH
Rutgers Scarlet Knights (9-3)
#0 Aspen Maxwell 6’1” JR OH/RS
#2 Ema Grubanov 6’4” RS-SO OH
#3 Kenzie Dyrstad 5’7” SR DS/L
#4 Karis Willow 6’4” 5th Year OH
#6 Jenna DeLaMater 5’8” SR DS/L
#7 Kami Dyrstad 5’6” FR DS/L
#8 Skylar George 6’0” RS-JR OH
#9 Natalie Robinson 6’4” JR MB
#10 Kalia Kalama-Bajet 5’11” SO DS/L
#11 Lily Bolen 5’7” JR Setter
#12 Brooke Baldwin 6’0” FR Setter
#13 Zharia Harris-Waddy 6’1” SR MB
#14 Addison Wiemann 6’3” FR OH/RS
#15 Alleigh Dutton 5’4” JR DS/L
#16 Imani Howell 6’5” SO MB
#17 Avery Jesewitz 6’3” JR OH
#22 Malia Romes 6’4” FR MB
#23 Mira McCool 6’3” RS-SO MB/RS
