Murray Returns to Her Hometown for Legacy Night against Michigan

As Jennifer Cottrill finalized her rosters for this year’s club season, she noticed nearly every team had one thing in common. 

They all had a girl wearing No. 27. 

Cottrill, a co-founder of Legacy Volleyball Club in metro Detroit, has known Harper Murray since she was 8. She’s watched her grow up, win club championships at Legacy, and then become one of the best and most popular players for Nebraska, all while wearing No. 27 as a tribute to her late father. 

This weekend, Murray will return to her hometown of Ann Arbor one final time as the top-ranked Huskers play at Michigan on Friday before taking on Michigan State on Saturday. Even though it will be a home match for the Wolverines, the stands will be packed with red and No. 27 jerseys as a sold-out crowd fills Crisler Center. 

“Her impact on the sport has been monumental, and we’re so blessed that she grew up with us, and that we’ve got to be kind of a small part of her journey,” Cottrill said. 

Cottrill will be at the match on Friday with almost 1,000 people connected to Legacy to cheer on Murray, as well as her teammates Campbell Flynn and Gabby DiVita, who also played for Legacy, along with Michigan freshman libero Meredith Martin. Cottrill said they sold out their initial allotment of 500 tickets in 30 minutes, so they worked with Michigan’s ticket department to add 500 more for their group. 

According to the club, this is the seventh year they’ve hosted a Legacy night for a Michigan match. In three of the last four seasons, the event coincided with Murray and the Huskers coming to town. Last year, around 500 people attended as Michigan set a school-record attendance of 12,707. The match marked the first time they sold out Crisler Arena and exceeded the old record by more than 4,000. 

DiVita has attended the Legacy matches in years past and said she is looking forward to being on the court while players from her former club are in the stands. She said watching Murray play for Legacy and go on to Nebraska left an impression on her. 

“When she first got here (at Nebraska), I looked up to her a lot, and I still do,” DiVita said. “A lot of girls there look up to her, and like she’s done a lot of big things here. Legacy loves her, and I think that’s a family there, and it always will be. A lot of girls look up to her and are excited to see her play.”

Many fans will be there to see Michigan take on the top-ranked team in the nation and four former Legacy players. However, the main draw is Murray, a three-time All-American who still maintains strong connections to the state’s volleyball community. 

Cottrill has coached several elite players at Legacy over the past two decades, including three Gatorade National Player of the Year honorees — Murray, Flynn and Jess Mruzik, who started her career at Michigan before winning a national championship at Penn State. 

While Mruzik had a successful college career and now plays professionally with LOVB Houston, she doesn’t have the same notoriety as Murray, not for any fault of her own. The three-year gap in their college careers marked significant growth in the sport and created more NIL opportunities for Murray. 

Cottrill said Murray just has the star factor, even from a young age.  

“Since the moment she’s walked in our gym, she commands that attention and has that personality that people gravitate towards,” she said. “Just based on her play, her skills, her talent, and then also just her personality and her charisma — people just gravitate to her. That’s just her, and she has always been that way since she’s been little.”

Over the last decade, Murray developed a special relationship with Cottrill and her husband, Ricky, who coached several of her club teams. Murray helped lead her Legacy team to the AAU U17 National Championship in 2021. She said Ricky helped her develop mental toughness that has served her well in college, and they both helped her become the player she is today.

Murray said Legacy created an environment that helped her and many other girls improve at volleyball. 

“I’m just so grateful that Legacy is still doing so well,” the senior outside hitter said. “I know a lot of their younger teams are really successful right now, so I hope that continues. But I’m just grateful that that was the club that I played for because I couldn’t imagine it any differently.”

Murray hosted a youth camp at the Legacy facilities in January. The event sold out quickly and amassed a waiting list of more than 250. Murray offered another camp in May, giving those who didn’t make the initial camp a first chance to sign up. 

She said she enjoys teaching volleyball to younger players, no matter their skill level. Murray has also learned a lot about the business side of the sport by working with Cottrill and running her camps at the Legacy complex. 

“​​I’m just grateful that they trusted me, and the parents trusted me to be with their kids and teach them a little bit,” she said. “Volleyball is growing so much and it’s so new to a lot of people and so many people are getting into the sport that why not run a camp and let a bunch of people come in and learn a little bit. They might not get any better, but they’re going to learn something, so I think that was my goal.”

Cottrill will be in the stands to watch all four of her former players suit up on Friday night. Even though all four have different roles on their team, she will be smiling as she watches them play for two successful Big Ten teams. 

Murray is excited to be back in Michigan one more time during her playing career. She is amazed by how volleyball has grown in Michigan over the last several years. 

Regardless of her plans for next year, this will be her final match in Ann Arbor. She hadn’t thought this would be her last trip as a Husker until she was asked about it at a press conference this week, but she will enjoy hosting her teammates at her house one more time and telling them stories about Ann Arbor and growing up in Michigan. 

“They probably get so annoyed with me because I talk about how much I love Ann Arbor so much, but it’s truly like it’s such a special place,” she said. “ I don’t really know how to explain it, but I love the people there. I love the area. I’m so grateful I grew up there. I compare it to every other city I’m always in. So I’m just really excited to go back because all my friends are from there. My family’s there. It’s going to be a fun day.”