Even before Nebraska dismantled UNLV on Saturday night, the college volleyball world had circled the Huskers’ Sunday afternoon showdown with Texas as a bitter match between two heated rivals.
While Andi Jackson, Laney Choboy, and Dani Busboom Kelly were clearly thrilled with the straight-set win when they addressed the media after the match, they also pointed out that this version of the Longhorns was not the same unit NU last faced. During their comments, especially, Jackson and Choboy pointed out that there wasn’t a reason to have animus towards this team. In the end, the No. 1 team in the country facing the No. 2 team in the sport was all the motivation they needed.
“I mean, I think that there's obviously a rivalry there, but I think that we really tried to stay in the moment this year and just only think about this year. Me personally, I don't think we were necessarily thinking about freshman year and our loss in the national championship three years ago,” Choboy said.
Andi Jackson says Nebraska volleyball faced a completely different Texas roster
Her comments echo the mantra for the Huskers since they started preseason camp. NU has made it clear time and time again that they aren’t interested in any one regular season win or some measure of revenge against one school or another. The team as a whole is laser-focused on accomplishing all their goals, especially winning the national title.
“I think we were really just focused on this year, trying to come away with a win for our own season and not our freshman year.”
Jackson then pointed out it didn’t make much sense to focus on revenge because of how many different players are on this year’s version of the Longhorns.
“I think also coming into this game, we knew that it was a different team. We, I think there's, correct me if I'm wrong, but like one returning player who was on that team when we lost.”
She went on to say that Nebraska didn’t want to hold on to what the Texas team did a couple of years ago. They also weren’t thinking about tendencies of a team that didn’t really exist anymore. She added that the Huskers knew this was a brand-new team, and they needed to take on the squad in front of them.
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