The No. 2 Nebraska volleyball team is in its final stages of preseason camp before embarking on another pressure-packed campaign that sees the Huskers as Big Ten Conference favorites and an expectation to match their 2023 success – which ended with a national championship appearance. Although, that doesn’t stop the program from looking ahead to future seasons.
Husker coach John Cook confirmed that he’s in talks with the Nebraska Athletic Department and the NCAA to host high profile non-conference matches at Pinnacle Bank Arena for the 2025 season. Nebraska has never played inside PBA, with Cook resisting the idea of playing inside the 15,500-seat arena in downtown Lincoln.
The Huskers won’t get close to breaking the 92,003 who watched NU sweep UNO for Volleyball Day in Nebraska at Memorial Stadium, but it will be another marquee event to help catapult college volleyball into mainstream media much like the breakout women’s college basketball and the WNBA has seen over the past few seasons.
“There’s a lot of pressure for us to go there,” Cook said. “We’re talking about doing a couple matches there. PBA is open and so we’ll see. I had to bet money right now I would say ‘yes’.”
Shifting the gaze to 2024, Cook and his team are on the horizon of the annual Red-White scrimmage which is set for 6 p.m. CDT on Saturday at the Devaney Center.
Despite the return of nearly the entire starting lineup, Saturday will still go a long way in determining Nebraska’s lineup ahead of its matchup with No. 9 Kentucky next Tuesday on ESPN2. Four hitters need to fit into two starting roles while Cook and his staff need to decide how they’ll play their floor defenders in the back row.
Teams have yet to be finalized, but Cook revealed that at least four sets will be played Saturday night.
Tuesday’s match against the Wildcats will have other changes the No. 2 Huskers will have to deal with as part of the AVCA First Serve Showcase. The event also includes No. 3 Wisconsin and No. 6 Louisville. The showcase will feature mostly international rules with no line judges, a new replay system, faster timeouts, and an eight-second serve clock.
Nebraska will have a consistent presence at the AVCA Showcase, which will be hosted at the KFC Yum! Center in downtown Louisville which is also hosting this season’s Final Four. Teams can only be a part of this event two times every four years. As Cook also mentioned, it’s a chance for volleyball to stand on its own.
“The best thing is it’s a great opportunity for us to showcase volleyball before football starts. I think that’s key,” Cook said. “…There’s going to be four college football playoff games in the week the Final Four is going. There’s going to be a lot of competition and a lot of focus on football that could take away from volleyball. This is our chance to start things early.”
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