The NCAA Tournament is set to begin on Thursday, December 4th when 64 teams begin their quest for the 2025 NCAA Volleyball National Championship. Below is the schedule for the tournament throughout the month of December.
- December 4th-5th – 1st Round (TV: ESPN+)
- December 5th-6th – 2nd Round (TV: ESPN+)
- December 11th & 13th or December 12th & 14th – Regionals (TV: ESPN/ESPN2/ABC)
- December 18th – Final Four (Semifinals) (TV: ESPN)
- December 21st – National Championship (TV: ABC at 2:30pm CST)
With all of the pressure on them, coming from a perfect season and their deep bench, the Huskers are hoping to finish the season undefeated and with a 6th national title in their trophy case. The last time the Huskers went undefeated and won a national championship was the 2000 season when
they went 34-0 during John Cook’ 1st season as the head coach. Now, in DBK’s 1st season as head coach, they hope to do this again.
B1G Volleyball Postseason Awards were announced on Tuesday morning and they were Nebraska heavy, unlike most of the weekly awards during conference play. As Nebraska fans, we expected them to clean up here though. Penn State might be a butt hurt though as they were probably expecting Kennedy Martin to get the Player of the Year award, but Nebraska’s Bergen Reilly beat them, for the 3rd time this season, in the race for this award.
Listed below are the B1G Postseason Awards along with the Huskers that were selected for All-B1G First and Second Team, All-Freshman Team, and our Sportsmanship Honoree:
- Player of the Year: Bergen Reilly, JR, Setter, Nebraska
- Setter of the Year: Bergen Reilly, JR, Setter, Nebraska
- Libero of the Year: Gillian Grimes, SR, Penn State
- Freshman of the Year: Alanah Clemente, OPP, Oregon
- Coach of the Year: Dani Busboom Kelly, Nebraska (Voted on by Coaches & Media)
- All-B1G 1st Team: Andi Jackson, Harper Murray, Bergen Reilly (Unanimous selections), Rebekah Allick
- All-B1G 2nd Team: Taylor Landfair & Laney Choboy
- All-Freshman Team: Virginia Adriano
- Sportsmanship Honoree: Maisie Boesiger
Long Island will be Nebraska’s 1st opponent of the tournament this year and will travel to Lincoln this week along with Kansas State and #8 seed San Diego who play right before the Huskers on Friday night. Long Island and Nebraska have only met one other time in both teams histories and this happened just a few years ago in 2023. The Huskers swept them and made it all the way to the national championship that year before losing to Texas. If we happen to meet Texas again, like in 2023, it will definitely be different.
The Sharks have been struggling in recent years even though they made the tournament just 2 years ago. In 2023, when they made the tournament, they only went 13-19, but won their conference tournament to earn a bid. In 2024, they got a few more wins, going 15-17
In the 2025 season, the Long Island Sharks finished 20-8 and beat Saint Francis in the NEC Tournament to win the conference title and earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament where they were given a date with Nebraska. They started the season 0-6 and probably didn’t know what the season was going to bring at that point, but turned it around quickly going into their last weekend of non-conference and conference play.
The Sharks have played one other B1G team this season during the non-conference portion of play this year. During the Sacred Heart Invitational, they played Rutgers and lost 3-1. Rutgers is one of the bottom teams in the B1G so the Sharks will have their work cut out for them against the top team in the B1G and the nation. The Sharks only lost 2 matches in their conference this season.
Long Island’s top player this season is OH Sara van Gisteren. She is 6’3” junior from Leuth, Netherlands who is in her 1st season with the Sharks. She has already earned herself 3 NEC Player of the Week awards, but was not recognized in the individual awards for the NEC conference while 2 other teammates were. van Gisteren is averaging 3.92 kills/set, which is 2nd in the conference, and is hitting .232% this season while also adding 55 blocks and 249 digs on the defensive side of the ball.
Sophomore Libero Miabella Musignac is the NEC Conference Defensive Player of the Year and she is the heartbeat of the Sharks’ defense. She has 405 digs this season and averages 4.01 digs/set. These numbers led the NEC as well hence the award. This was a big jump from her freshman season where she only had 181 digs and was splitting time with, then Senior, Alasha Colon.
Along with Nebraska’s Bergen Reilly, Long Island also had the Setter of the Year on their roster with Senior Karly Klaer. She is a transfer who spent her freshman and sophomore seasons at Cleveland State and her junior year at Chicago State. She is finishing her career this season at Long Island and is ending it with a pretty good season. Klaer averaged 10.06 assists/set while Nebraska’s Reilly averaged just a little more with 10.31 assists/set.
Klaer, along with being the teams best setter, is also listed as an opposite hitter for the team. She has 133 kills this season and is averaging 1.32 kills/set. She plays an all around game adding 46 blocks as well. With Klaer at setter, she is already one of the most important people on the team with running the offense. She seems to be even more than that though taking a good amount of swings and also playing very good defense.
Junior MB Yasmeen Muhammad is one of the Sharks top hitters and is also the top blocker on the team during the regular season. Muhammad averages 2.23 kills/set, hitting .453% on 225 kills and only 26 errors. She also added 104 blocks, with 23 of these being solo. Along with Klaer, Muhammad is another key to both their offense and defense.
The Huskers are ready to start their run at their 1st national title since 2017 after finishing the regular season undefeated and only losing 1 set in B1G play this season. While it may be easy to overlook teams in the first few rounds, the Huskers know they can’t do this and have to play lights out all month long to win that title.
Friday’s match is set to begin at 7:00pm CST against the Long Island Sharks. It could start as early as 6:30pm CST if the Kansas State-San Diego match ends up being at sweep. That match begins at 4:30pm CST. The match will only be available for streaming on ESPN+.
#1 Nebraska Cornhuskers (30-0, 20-0 B1G)
#1 Keri Leimbach 5’4” FR DS/L
#2 Bergen Reilly 6’1” JR Setter
#3 Allie Sczech 6’4” SR OPP
#4 Campbell Flynn 6’3” FR Setter
#5 Rebekah Allick 6’4” SR MB
#6 Laney Choboy 5’3” JR DS/L
#7 Maisie Boesiger 5’6” SR DS/L
#8 Kenna Cogill 6’4” FR MB
#9 Virginia Adriano 6’5” FR OPP
#10 Olivia Mauch 5’6” SO DS/L
#11 Teraya Sigler 6’3” FR OH
#12 Taylor Landfair 6’5” SR OH
#14 Manaia Ogbechie 6’3” FR MB
#15 Andi Jackson 6’3” JR MB
#18 Ryan Hunter 6’2” FR OPP
#21 Skyler Pierce 6’2” RS-FR OH
#27 Harper Murray 6’2” JR OH
Long Island Sharks (20-8, 15-1 NEC)
#1 Brooke Boyles FR 5’11” OH
#2 Neela Feliberty SO 5’2” DS/L
#4 Saniya Kimbrough FR 5’11” OH/OPP
#5 Miabella Musignac SO 5’7” DS/L
#7 Ella Pallagi SO 6’1” Setter
#8 Anna Ligart JR 6’1” OPP
#11 Katelyn Heitert SO 5’7” DS/L
#12 Sofia Varela FR 5’10” Setter
#13 Bella Correia SO 6’1” OH
#15 Yasmeen Muhammad JR 6’2” MB
#17 Riley Greene FR 6’1” MB
#18 Sara van Gisteren JR 6’3” OH
#21/3 Mia Rojas-Avila SO 5’11” OH
#24 Sara Garcia SO 6’2” MB/OH
#25 Karly Klaer SR 5’10” Setter/OPP
