Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas pin hitter Grace Nelson celebrates with her teammates against Miami in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025 in Lawrence.

No one has beaten this year’s Nebraska team yet. The Cornhuskers are 32-0 and have lost one set — not one match, but one set — in their previous 23 matches.

But Nebraska as a program is certainly not unbeatable, and Kansas coach Matt Ulmer is proof: In his very first match as a head coach, back in 2017, his Oregon Ducks took down the Huskers in four sets at a neutral site.

“I actually joked about that after that match, maybe I should just be done, be 1-0,” Ulmer recalled on Tuesday. “Nebraska won the championship that year, but we beat them in the first match. It was funny.”

Later, in 2022, the Ducks did it again, outlasting the Huskers in five sets, this time in the postseason.

But neither of those matches was the choice for Ulmer to show to his team on Monday. Instead, he opted to put on a battle against Minnesota in 2018 in which an Oregon team with a very comparable background to the 2025 Jayhawks entered as the No. 15 overall seed and knocked off the second-ranked Gophers in Minneapolis.

The four-set victory featured a 41-39 marathon second game that went the way of the Ducks, helping to get at one of the points Ulmer wanted to illustrate to his team.

“I wanted them to see just how that Oregon team just played point for point,” he said. “… We made bad plays and things went against us and things were good for us, but we just kept going. And I thought that was something that we’re going to have to have (in Nebraska). Also, I wanted them to understand that they should be believing in themselves.”

Plenty of self-belief will be required when the Jayhawks meet the top-ranked Cornhuskers at 8:30 p.m. on Friday in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Granted, visiting the Devaney Center — and experiencing its sold-out crowds — won’t be new for this group of Jayhawks, or at least most of them. KU had the chance to play a spring match at Nebraska and lost all four sets it played, although it was before the Jayhawks brought in their three key international players and the Cornhuskers added opposite hitters Allie Sczech and Virginia Adriano.

“I think that was a really good test for us,” Ulmer said. “I think that was a big part of our growth, was going and playing in that match, even though we didn’t win sets necessarily, but seeing what it’s going to take, what that life is going to be like of playing tough teams in tough environments, was really, really important for us. I think it definitely carried over to the season.”

The Jayhawks, of course, weathered some bumps in the road in nonconference play, including a series of five-set losses to high-level teams. They went on to finish second in the Big 12 despite enduring a pair of late-season sweeps on a road trip to Utah, earned a hosting spot, and beat High Point and Miami to reach the Sweet 16.

Nebraska, meanwhile, has dominated nearly every opponent it has faced in its first season under head coach Dani Busboom Kelly, who took over for four-time national champion John Cook.

“Dani, I think, was absolutely the right choice,” Ulmer said, “and I think she’s brought them an even kind of different confidence and swagger, maybe.”

The Huskers have gone to five sets twice: against Kentucky in Nashville, Tennessee, on Aug. 31, and on the road at Creighton on Sept. 16. They have lost one set at home all season, to Utah on Sept. 12. Long Island and Kansas State were their victims in the first two rounds of the tournament.

Nebraska is an evidently well-rounded team on which nine players have played at least 87 sets (of the team’s total 103), and the engine of the Cornhuskers’ offense is junior setter Bergen Reilly, the Big Ten’s player and setter of the year who averages 10.42 assists and 2.72 digs per set.

She is feeding several of the nation’s most productive offensive threats, led by outside hitter Harper Murray, a two-time American Volleyball Coaches Association All-American averaging 3.10 kills per set on .299 hitting. In all, Nebraska is the national leader in hitting percentage at .353, with a big boost from efficient middle blockers Rebekah Allick (2.53 kills, .437 hitting) and Andi Jackson (2.79, .483).

Defensively, meanwhile, the Huskers allow the lowest opponent hitting percentage. Allick and Jackson combine for 2.44 blocks per set. Libero Laney Choboy leads the way in the digs column with 2.73 per set.

AP Photo/Mac Johnson

Nebraska’s Harper Murray digs the ball during an NCAA college volleyball match against California, Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025, in Lincoln, Neb.

AP Photo/Mac Johnson

Nebraska’s Rebekah Allick (5), Bergen Reilly (2) and Virginia Adriano (9) celebrate after a point during an NCAA college volleyball match against California, Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025, in Lincoln, Neb.

Ulmer is impressed by the Huskers’ collective mentality.

“They never look bothered, right?” he said. “It’s very hard to rattle them. I just think they have such a belief in what they’re doing, in themselves. They’re so seasoned and experienced. I mean, yes, they have athletes that are freaky athletes and high-ranked recruits and all those things, but it’s really just how bonded they are right now, and that’s going to take a mighty effort to crack that.”

However, “it could be interesting,” he added, if the Jayhawks can find a way to apply some level of pressure to Nebraska, which it really hasn’t had to face very often in 2025.

A note on ‘JZ’

Jovana Zelenović, KU’s standout 6-foot-7 opposite hitter who on Tuesday was named the AVCA’s freshman of the year for the Central Region, played through a back injury against Miami that she had suffered the day before. The match against the Hurricanes wasn’t her best offensive showing, as she recorded six kills in four sets with her second-lowest hitting percentage of the year, but she still found ways to contribute.

“I wouldn’t say our team in general handles that adversity great,” Ulmer said. “I think you know when they’re sick, you know when they’re hurting. I’ve had teams where it’s like you had no idea, they wouldn’t let you know. But I was proud of her because again, this time of year, everybody’s got something going on … Even though we didn’t use her offense a ton in that match, her serving was very impactful.”

Having the highly touted rookie, producer of 2.88 kills and 0.96 blocks per set (plus 46 aces on the season), close to full strength will be key to threatening Nebraska.

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Written By Henry Greenstein

Henry is the sports editor at the Lawrence Journal-World and KUsports.com, and serves as the KU beat writer while managing day-to-day sports coverage. He previously worked as a sports reporter at The Bakersfield Californian and is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis (B.A., Linguistics) and Arizona State University (M.A., Sports Journalism). Though a native of Los Angeles, he has frequently been told he does not give off “California vibes,” whatever that means.

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