Husker Volleyball Invitational Sets the Stage for a Rip-Roaring Season

So, get ready to roar! GBR!!

Nebraska plays the host to Utah, Drake and Grand Canyon as the four teams move closer to the main body of their season that is the conference schedules. So many of us enjoy these preconference weeks as exciting and highly skilled teams travel to destination arenas to play teams we won’t see again until December.

There are 11 days until Nebraska faces their first conference foe, Michigan, and then for the next ten weeks, there is nothing but Big Ten opponents. These are the opponents that

we get to know so well after years of play and intense desire to beat them.

This weekend the Huskers play #22 Utah and Grand Canyon. Next week they will face #18 Creighton and Arizona before beginning the challenge that is Big Ten volleyball.

University of Utah

2024 Record: 25-6 Overall, 14-4 Big 12 (1st season in Big 12)
2025 Record: 5-1
Ranked Wins in 2024: #17 TCU, #18 Baylor and #21 BYU
NCAA Tournament 2024: They were a #4 seed. They beat College of Charleston 3-0 then lost to Marquette 2-3.

Utah was picked to placed fourth in the preseason Big 12 poll behind BYU, Kansas and Arizona State. They return 2024 All American outside hitter Kamryn Gibaldo as well as All Big 12 honoree middle blocker Emrie Moea’i and All Freshmen team selectee Isabelle Marco.

Utah enters Lincoln with a 5-1 record so far this season with notable wins against Dayton and Washington State. Their lone loss is to #8 Texas A&M. Utah’s Head Coach Beth Launiere is in her 36th season as the leader of this program. She seems to be keeping it old school with very few transfers on her roster. Leah Wilton-LaBoy transferred from Oklahoma and Neea-Maria Joki from Clemson, but the remainder of the players started at Utah, and remain at Utah.

There are three international players on the roster with Lana Mijacis from Serbia, Olga Musial from Poland and Joki from Finland. Of the three, Joki and Mijacis are seeing significant playing time. Joki plays on the right side and earns an average of 2.86 kills per set. Mijacis plays in the middle and is part of a solid blocking team for the Utes.

The main offensive threat from this Utes team is Gibaldo. She is a 6’1” junior outside hitter and earns over four kills per set. She is complimented by another player mentioned above, Moea’i. Moea’i, in the middle, earns just over three kills per set and is the best blocker on the team averaging 1.45 blocks per set.

Utah brings height to the court and with that also comes a block to pay attention to. Utah is averaging 2.80 blocks per set which is slightly higher than the Husker average so far this season of 2.74 blocks per set. Utah does this by running a 6-2 offense against taller, more competitive teams i.e. Nebraska. They use a double sub to bring in a setter and right-side hitter, so they always have three hitters in the front row, and their setter is always in the backrow.

Utah would rather run a 5-1 but their setters are 5’8 and 5’10” and rotating them to the front row against Nebraska will cause a large hitting advantage for the Huskers. Any one of the Nebraska outside hitters will hit over, around and off of the smaller blocker’s hands. Take this knowledge from a woman that WAS a smaller blocker in college volleyball, defense behind that block is super tough. Add Harper Murray to the mix and you just made unbeatable odds by placing a 5’8” blocking in the front court.

Utah coaching staff will run the 6-2 offense against Nebraska. Husker hitters will conduct business as usual when faced with a quality block; see the block, hit high off the block and when the block is not well formed, use the error to tool the block. Nebraska’s setter, Bergen Reilly, is integral to beating the Utah block as well. She will use fast setting hands to push the ball to her hitters trying to beat the block to a spot.

Reilly will also vary her sets in order to trick the Utah defense. Every time a Husker hitter only has one blocker up with them, Reilly did her job running the offense. The second blocker was either fooled and jumped with another attacker or the set got their so fast that the second blocker was still buying her ticket to get there on time and was too late to the block party. Reilly runs a beautiful offense, so enjoyable to watch.

#22 Utah (5-1)

#1 Lana Mijacis 6’3” FR MB
#2 Emrie Moea’i 6’0” SR MB
#3 Isabelle Marco 5’10 SO Setter
#4 Ella Biggs 6’2” R/JR OH
#5 Leah Wilton-LaBoy 5’8” SR Setter
#6 Ashley West 6’4” R/JR OPP
#7 DyBorrah Johnson 6’1” FR MB
#8 Iliana Linaham 5’6” SR DS/L
#9 Grace Moss 5’5” R/SO DS/L
#10 Levani Key-Powell 5’9” SO OH
#11 McKenna Payne 5’7” FR DS/L
#12 Katelynn Field 6’5” FR MB
#14 Olga Musial 6’2” JR OPP
#15 Langley Griffin 6’0” JR OH
#16 Devyn Wiest 6’3” FR OH
#17 Allie Drossenback 6’0” FR OPP
#18 Kamryn Gibaldo 6’1” JR OH
#20 Neea-Maria Joki 6’0” SO OPP

Grand Canyon University

2024 Record: 20-11 Overall, 11-5 in WAC (moved to Mountain West in 2025)
2025 Record: 5-1
Ranked Wins in 2024: None
NCAA Tournament 2024: Didn’t make it

Grand Canyon will play Drake University at 2:30 in the Devaney Center on Friday prior to their Saturday match against the Huskers. The Lopes are fresh off their first loss of the season which came against Northern Arizona.

Expect to see some line up variations for Nebraska as the match progresses although, Husker head coach Dani Busboom Kelly said after the Wright State match that at some point she has to give the players on the court time to work through things. She was talking about playing time, subs and finding the balance between gaining experience for younger players while still playing more seasoned players.

DBK also emphasized that no matter who is across the net, “the most important thing we are doing in this program is the thing we are doing right now”. She wants to her players to be present and feel free when they are playing. She thinks those are important for each match and in the long season that is college volleyball.

Grand Canyon Antelopes (5-1)

#1 Briley Decker 6’1” R/JR Setter
#2 Sophia Parlanti 6’0” GR OH
#3 Hayden Goodman 6’2” GR MB
#4 Taylor Kubacak 5’11” SO Setter
#5 Ali West 6’0” R/SO OH
#7 Natalie Guerrero 5’5” SO DS
#8 Bella Anderson 5’9” JR Libero
#9 Macey Hughes 6’1” FR OPP
#10 Aubrey Bellus 6’2” FR MB
#11 Anna Ruter 6’2” R/JR MB
#12 Sofia Osterdahl 5’11” JR OH
#14 Shay Heaney 6’1” FR OH
#15 Aspen Reed 5’9” FR OH
#16 Hunter West 5’8” SO Libero
#17 Anaelena Ramirez 6’2” SR OH
#19 Aubrey Goodere 6’3” SO MB
#20 Ana Jaramazovic 6’4” FR OPP
#21 Bella Nunez 5’11” FR Setter
#22 Logan Strong 5’10” FR Libero
#23 Avalynn Roundy 6’3” FR MB

The match on Friday night will be played at 6:00pm and will be able to be available on FS1. Saturday’s match will be at 6:00pm and will be televised on Nebraska Public Media.