South Dakota State
2025 Record: 23-5
2025 Conference Record: The Summit League (16-0)
Last NCAA Tournament Appearance: 2025 (Lost to Arizona in 1st Round)
After an exciting first weekend of volleyball, the Huskers will get to play a more lowkey matchup as they head to the home state of Bergen Reilly to play South Dakota State on Wednesday night. These two teams met just last year in the Huskers’ annual spring match in the town of Ord, Nebraska.
This match will be one of the Huskers last matches before
they finally get to play at the Bob Devaney Center for the first time this season. After their trip to South Dakota, they will head to Chicago to play DePaul on their home court then the much anticipated match against Missouri at Wrigley Field.
South Dakota State has been one of the best teams in the Summit League for the past few years as they have won the Regular Season title two years in a row (2024-2025). They haven’t been as successful in the postseason tournament though. They haven’t won it since 2007 and finished as the runner-up in 2024 and 2025.
The Jackrabbits are currently 1-2 right now beating Sacramento State, in 5 sets, in their 1st match and then got swept by Pepperdine and lost in 5 to Villanova, who is receiving votes. They are favored to win the Summit League again while the team who beat them in the conference championship, the St. Thomas Tommies, are right behind them tied for 2nd with the South Dakota Coyotes.
SDSU placed 2 girls on the Players to Watch list put out by the conference this year. Both are seniors on the team and both have been at SDSU since they came in as freshman.
DS/L Joslyn Richardson and OH Sylvie Zgonc came into the program in a year where they finished 9-20 overall and lost in the 1st round of the conference tournament. By the next season, everything had turned around and the team went 27-3 overall. Since then, they haven’t looked back and these two seniors have been a big part of the turn around.
Senior OH Sylvie Zgonc played in 29 matches in her freshman year, 2023, earning her a spot on the Summit League First Team and was also named Freshman of the Year for the league. In 2024, she won Summit League Player of the Year and then repeated this a year later in 2025. She also has received several AVCA awards throughout the years as well.
The team has lost some fire power on their offense, losing Annalee Ventling-Brown and Sydni Schetnan to graduation, but they have solidified SO OH/RS Hannah Klein as Zgonc’s right hand woman. Last season, Klein had 233 kills, 2.24 kills/set, and already has 35 this season in 13 sets played. She has also added 6 blocks as well.
Junior MB Madison Burr and SR MB Brooklyn Meyer have also been big parts of the team’s success as well, but they have yet to play this season as it seems like their coach is playing with their lineup in the first few matches. We could possibly see them play Wednesday night.
Instead of Burr and Meyer playing, Freshman MB Hannah Misna has been given a chance early in the season to play and has already recorded 8 blocks in 3 matches, which is 2nd on the team to Claire Logeais’ 10 blocks. Logeais is a sophomore transfer from Dayton and has been trying to get herself into the lineup, which will be hard because of the veterans who have proved themselves already.
While SDSU has had a lot of success in the past, the Huskers are coming into town to try and reach 3-0 this season. Beating Nebraska would be a huge win for SDSU, but the Huskers need not look at this match like it is just SDSU. The Jackrabbits are still a good opponent and they could have issues with them if they play down to their level.
Wednesday’s match will begin at 7:00pm CST at the First Bank & Trust Arena in Brookings, SD. Sadly, if you are wanting to watch this match, you will need to sign up with MidCo Sports Plus to be able to watch which costs $10 to get a Single Game Pass. This should be the only match this season that requires extra payment to watch, besides matches on B1G+, but we are used to those. Here is the link if you are wanting to purchase access to the match: https://www.midcosportsplus.com/.
#1 Nebraska Cornhuskers (2-0)
#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
South Dakota State (1-2)
#2 Kennedey Whitford 5’4” FR DS/L
#3 Katelyn Van Kirk 6’2” JR OS/RS
#4 Hannah Klein 6’0” SO OH/RS
#5 Rylee Martin 5’8” SR Setter
#8 Madison Burr 6’1” JR RS/MB
#9 Taylor Byl 6’3” RS-SO MB
#10 Sylvie Zgonc 5’11” SR OH
#11 Mallory Hartwig 5’11” FR OH
#12 Brooke Larsen 5’11” SO Setter
#13 Marisa Michaelis 6’0” FR RS
#14 Hannah Misna 6’3” FR RS/MB
#15 Brooklyn Meyer 6’2” SR MB
#16 Claire Logeais 6’3” SO MB
#17 Joslyn Richardson 5’9” SR DS/L
#18 Anna Johannson 5’5” SO DS/L
#20 Patrycja Labucka 6’5” JR RS
