Three years after Volleyball Day in Nebraska, the Huskers will take part in another outdoor event designed to raise the level of the sport.
CHICAGO — For the second time in their careers, the seniors on their Nebraska volleyball team will get to experience a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
During their second week of college, those four Huskers played in front of 92,003 fans at Memorial Stadium. Now, two weeks into their senior year, the four — Harper Murray, Andi Jackson, Bergen Reilly and Laney Choboy — will play in another outdoor game—this time at Wrigley Field.
The top-ranked Husker will take on Missouri at the Friendly Confines Sunday night. They are scheduled to get underway at 8 p.m. but will take the court after the No. 13 Penn State-No. 3 Kentucky match, which starts at 6 p.m.
“It feels almost a little full circle of we got to play Memorial freshman year and now senior year getting to play another kind of stadium game,” Reilly said.
Volleyball has evolved since 2023, partly sparked by the exposure from the Memorial Stadium match. The preseason is filled with more high-profile events. The Huskers have remained at the center of that with matches at AT&T Stadium in Arlington (home of the Dallas Cowboys) and T-Mobile Center in Las Vegas (home of the NHL’s Golden Knights).
“It’s cool how much it’s grown over the last few years and how they’re finding new venues to let us play in,” Murray said. “It’s cool that they keep finding these random venues for us to play in. Because again, it shows that they need a place for all of our fans to be there, and for all of them to be able to come and fill the space with them.”
Laney Choboy celebrates a point against Omaha while playing in front of 92,003 people at Memorial Stadium. Several of Nebraska's seniors said playing in that match during their freshman year will help them when they play at Wrigley Field. | Dylan Widger-USA TODAY SportsJackson said this stadium match will be more manageable because they’ve already experienced playing an outdoor match in front of a large crowd. Plus, they know how the elements will affect the ball from playing beach volleyball in the spring. The main difference is they’ll be using indoor volleyball, which is lighter and more susceptible to the wind.
Even if the play isn’t as sharp as it usually is, it doesn’t matter too much because they are helping raise the profile of the program and sport.
“These big venues—they’re intimidating, but I think they’re also so exciting and so shifting our mindset from being intimidated to being excited,” Jackson said. “We’re growing women’s sports, so we have nothing to lose. We’re excited, and at the end of the day, it’s about women’s sports. It’s not about us.”
Murray and Jackson hope to hold on to their memories from this event even more than from Volleyball Day in Nebraska. Murray said the first thing she remembers is sitting on the court after the match, watching the fireworks.
“I don’t remember it whatsoever,” she said.
Bergen Reilly goes back to serve for Nebraska during Volleyball Day in Nebraska in 2023. Reilly, now a senior, called playing in Wrigley Field a "full-circle" moment. | Dylan Widger-USA TODAY SportsThe underclassmen know the significance of the matches, so they tried not to talk about them until a few days before the event. Some of the younger Huskers were in the stands, as Skyler Pierce, Keri Leimbach and Olivia Muach attended as spectators.
Then they want to use their experience to teach them what to expect and how to get the most out of the day. However, as much as they prepare their teammates for the experience, they won’t know what it is like until they get onto the court.
Jackson said they also don’t want to oversell it and allow for nerves and anxiety to creep in.
“We haven’t really talked about it, not because we don’t care, but you don’t want to scare them,” Jackson said before the Red-White Scrimmage. “It’s such a cool experience, and we don’t want to (overemphasize) it. We don’t want to put so much pressure on it that no one can even have fun when we’re there.”
Choboy said she hopes the experience will better prepare them for the rest of the season’s challenges. After the match at Memorial Stadium, the Huskers lost just once in the regular season (to Wisconsin in the final week) and reached the national championship match.
“Nebraska has always done a lot,” she said. “Getting to play in stadiums and getting to play good competition when we’re in the stadiums is going to really prepare us well for the season. I don’t know if they’re sold out yet, but hopefully they will be, and I think it’ll be a crazy experience for all of those games.”
On Friday, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson attended the Huskers’ match against DePaul, which set a new record for attendance at a volleyball match in Illinois (that will be broken on Sunday). He told NU coach Dani Busboom Kelly that he’s been told that up to 47,000 people are expected at the stadium.
The Huskers will debut pinstriped uniforms designed to mimic baseball jerseys. Both Teraya Sigler and Kenna Cogill called them “cute.”
Sigler said she enjoyed taking in the city while walking to Wintrust Arena before the DePaul match, as well as the buzz around the event and the weekend.
“We treat this like this is a celebration that we work so hard to get here and do these things, and so I think we’re just excited,” she said.
Freshman Gabby DiVita said that even with all the Huskers have experienced this season, getting a chance to go out on the home of the Chicago Cubs is still amazing.
“I don’t think it’ll really click until, like, we’re standing there and I’m looking around,” she said. “I’m probably going to tear up a little bit because it’s so cool to have these opportunities.”
