When the Nebraska volleyball team scouted how best to attack Texas, the Huskers soon realized that the Longhorns' desire to be on the attack could be their greatest weakness.
After Sunday afternoon’s match, Andi Jackson, Laney Choboy and head coach Dani Busboom Kelly addressed the media and talked about everything they saw and everything they did that allowed them to win a straight-set sweep over the No. 2 team in the country.
The first and biggest factor in Nebraska cruising to victory, despite admittedly not playing as well as they would have liked, was how many service aces they racked up. The second factor was deeper and quite interesting: the Huskers essentially trapped Texas by enticing them into playing the game Texas likes to play. Specifically, Jackson explained NU saw that the Longhorns love to be aggressive and Dani Busboom Kelly and the staff came up with a way to counter it.
“They're a very good attacking team, and we watched their film, and we did a lot of scouting on them, and we knew that they like to set the ball tight to the net,” Jackson said.
Andi Jackson explains how Nebraska volleyball countered Texas’ tight sets
“You know, they're an aggressive team, like Dani said. They're super physical, so they're going to go up there and challenge the block. We just knew that we needed to be low and over, nice and disciplined.”
“There wasn't anything different that we had to do necessarily, just low and over and play our game.”
This comment was especially interesting considering there were a couple of points where Nebraska scored on light tip-overs, rather than going hard at Texas. It’s clear the Huskers focused on being careful and not just wildly hitting or going up at the net as hard as they could.
At other times, the Huskers hit hard right into the teeth of Texas’ defense and hoped they would make a mistake because of their physicality. Enough times for Big Red to win, those gambles paid off.
Adding to what Jackson pointed out, Busboom Kelly gave credit to the veteran lineup that was out there on the floor.
“It really starts at the top with the leaders, and those are our four seniors. So when they have this great mentality, it just bleeds into the whole team. And they've learned a lot in their careers, and sometimes it's tough to put that into action. But these four are on a different level this year.”
If the Nebraska coach is right, and the seniors have all taken the next step in their development, then the 2026 season will truly be a sight to see.
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