Nebraska Volleyball Hosts Oregon

SB Nation

#1 Nebraska vs. Oregon

When: Sunday, November 2nd, 1:00pm (CT)

Where: Devaney Sports Center, Lincoln, NE

Watch: Big Ten Network

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Thank goodness for volleyball in Nebraska.

This Oregon Duck team is nothing like the one Nebraska played last season. When Coach Matt Ulmer left Oregon to take the head coaching job at University of Kansas

many Oregon players entered the transfer portal. There is just one—one!—single player from the 2024 roster remaining on the team, senior defensive specialist, Maya De Los Reyes. Everyone else is new to the program.

The new head coach is Trent Kersten who was previously the head coach for Loyola Marymount (LMU) in the West Coast Conference. He brought a couple players with him from LMU (#11 Marlee Arrington and #13 Sophia Meyers). He also brought in senior setter Cora Taylor from Butler and junior outside hitter Valentina Vaulet from Michigan. In all, there are nine freshmen on the 15-person roster, so this Oregon team had a steep learning curve.

If Nebraska was scheduled to play Oregon four weeks ago, this match may not have been as competitive, but the Ducks are figuring some things out on their side of the court and as they do that, they are starting to beat some good teams. At the time they beat them, late in October, UCLA was #25 in the coach’s poll and Minnesota #18. These Ducks can play.

They also can be inconsistent, as you might expect with a team of young players. Freshman opposite Alanah Clemente flashes moments of greatness but then has a match where she commits 11 attack errors (vs Wisconsin 10/26/25). In the starting setter position, Taylor distributes the ball well, but Clemente is one of her go to hitters. Clemente is likely to get the ball when Oregon needs the sideout.

The two outside hitters carry a heavy load for this Duck team receiving about half of the sets. Valentina Vaulet is the 6’1” junior transfer from Michigan and Sophia Meyers is a 5’11” graduate student who transferred from LMU with her coach. They are both smart outside hitters with a variety of crafty shots.

The last important piece to the Oregon offense is 6’3” middle blocker Iva Sucurovic. She played with the Serbian National team and her experience shows. She is quick off the floor and knows how to hit the ball away from opposing middle blockers. Nebraska middles are sure up to the task of defending her, but they will need to keep that focus for the entire match.

Husker passers will also have a focus this afternoon as Oregon has a couple jump servers with tougher than average serves. When Clemente and Vaulet get their serve in the court it can cause problems for opposing teams. Clemente’s has a ton of top spin and drops quickly and Vaulet’s has some side spin and acts much like a knuckle ball. We saw Wisconsin expose the serving seam between Laney Choboy and Olivia Mauch on Friday night, and you can bet Oregon scouting saw it too.

Passing is an area of the game where Nebraska must be solid, steady and continue to get better. They did not pass well against Wisconsin as an overall assessment. Through the skill of Bergen Reilly and the hitters they were still able to hit an impressive .349 but Coach Dani Busboom Kelly would like to take the “still” out of that sentence. Pass well and hit at a high efficiency. Cut out the four reception errors against the Badgers and increase the number of passes Reilly can give to the middles.