Sports
The Dani Busboom Kelly Era Begins With a 4-0 Win Over Kansas
The official start of the Dani Busboom Kelly era won’t come for four more months, but there was plenty to take in on Saturday when Nebraska welcomed Kansas to the Bob Devaney Sports Center. In their first ever Volleyball Late, a new postgame show, Jeff Sheldon and Lincoln Arneal of the Volleyball State podcast gave their thoughts on Nebraska’s 4-0 win, talking about the players, stylistic changes, and more.
Below is an lightly-edited transcript of their postgame podcast.
Overall impressions from the first match under DBK
Jeff: Overall impressions right now? It seems like the freshmen were kind of the big story tonight.
Lincoln: I think the big story was this is Dani Busboom Kelly’s first match and talking to Rebecca Allick and Andi Jackson; both said this was the first match for them too. A lot of the same players, a lot of the same assistant coaches too, but they had nerves coming out there too. And maybe you saw it with a bunch of missed serves and a shank serve received to start the match. Not a strength early in game one.
But I think they settled in and Nebraska looked dominant. They beat Kansas 4-0. They played four sets. You can do that in an exhibition and made the stats a little bit messy, but I thought Nebraska looked good. Besides a few nerves early, Nebraska looked good. They looked like they weren’t in mid-season form, but they looked like they really had the signs of success.
Jeff: Yeah, absolutely. And the players that really stole the show, I thought, were Nebraska’s freshmen. Ryan Hunter was maybe the least heralded member of this recruiting class coming in, really through no fault of her own. She came in with that injury she suffered in high school. And you know, I always saw the stats through the first three sets, but I see she ended up with 11 kills. Nine on her first 11 swings through the first three sets. Ryan Hunter, welcome to Nebraska.
Lincoln: She didn’t have an error hitting error until the fourth set. She also didn’t play beach season too. So, she was with the team, traveled when they went to Hawaii and California, but really was only physically cleared to play in December and really kind of started her road to recovery from that knee injury over the last couple of months. I don’t know if it was just a left-hander at opposite, but she looked good. Like she had one kill. I think it was in the third or fourth set too, where she kind of sliced between a triple block that just looked veteran savvy and looked really good.
Were there any noticeable differences under DBK?
Jeff: Matt in the I-80 Club Discord asked if we saw a noticeable style difference because he said they look like they’re willing to try to set up some big swings. I noticed some different routes. I’m sure you did too. You know, they’re running Harper Murray inside instead of just setting her on the pin; some combo routes. This is kind of some stuff I thought that they might see judging on what Louisville looked like last year. What did you see kind of from the offensive scheme standpoint?
Lincoln: Well, I don’t know if it’s a schematic to me, but it’s more intention. They went to the middle blockers a lot more. The match was close. I think it was 19-18 in the first set and Nebraska went to the middle blockers. They went to Allick twice, and they finally got her a kill. And next three kills were all quick sets to middle block. And that’s what they think about speeding up that offense to run a little bit faster and I think the middle’s really benefited from that.
Jeff: I want to spend some time talking about the middles in a little bit and certainly give Andi Jackson her flowers, because oh my god did she bruise the floor a few times, and did something I don’t know I’ve ever seen a college middle blocker do, but we’re talking about the freshmen right now.
Let’s talk about Campbell Flynn for just a little bit. She set the final two sets of the match; set them to .395 hitting in game three. I was really impressed by her. Very smooth, good hands. The tempo was good. I think she missed on a couple locations, right? She’s a freshman and the passing wasn’t always great. But Campbell Flynn showed she’s ready to play at this level.
Lincoln: Yeah, I thought that was maybe one of more surprising things and maybe attribute that to nerves is Bergen Reilly struggled with her set location. But Flynn really came in and she didn’t get a kill on either of her attacks, but you get a lefty up there. These aren’t these gentle dump attacks for the middle; they’re power swings.
Harrper Murray
Jeff: Another returning player I want to keep my eye on tonight; Harper Murray. Started a little bit slower offensively, just had one kill in game one, picked it up as the match went along. But how about that jump serve, huh? We haven’t seen that yet!
Lincoln: No, I think that was really exciting too. They talked about the potential that she has to do that too. And she also mixed it up because she did the jump float, which she did last year too, she switched to that in the second set. She can really kind of yo-yo the defense and mix in that float serve with the jump top spin serve. It’s really going to give defense a headache too. She went back, first one she ripped off for an ace too. Nebraska hasn’t had a jump server in the number of years. I think John Cook’s talked about wanting to save legs.
Jeff: Yeah, it’s another kind of full swing. So if you get late in a match and Harper’s taken 45 swings in the flow of play, and then she’s going to go back there and try to rip eight jump serves, you can save your body a little bit. But it can be such a weapon, right? Maybe this is what we’re seeing a little bit of the philosophy change between Dani Busbom Kelly and John Cook is like, let’s just let it rip, right? Let’s use every tool we have at our disposal and it’ll get us another point or two.
Watch the entire postgame show below!
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Sports
UCLA Announces 2026 Women’s Beach Volleyball Schedule
SOCIAL MEDIA: BeachVB on Twitter | BeachVB on Facebook | BeachVB on Instagram
LOS ANGELES – The UCLA Women’s Beach Volleyball team announced its 2026 schedule today, highlighted by hosting three regular-season tournaments (two at Mapes Beach and one at legendary Manhattan Beach Pier) and “Senior Day” against CSU Bakersfield.
The Bruins will compete in seven different regular-season tournaments during the year, beginning with the season opener against Texas on Friday, Feb. 19, at 9:45 a.m. PT at Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Beach Classic at Queen’s Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii. The Bruins will also face Hawai’i, LMU, Stanford, California, and USC in the opening weekend.
UCLA will return home to host the Battle for LA (along with USC) on Friday-Saturday (Feb. 27-28). The Bruins will face Boise State, Cal Poly, Long Beach State, and Pepperdine in the friendly confines of Mapes Beach for the home opening weekend.
UCLA will host the MPSF Midseason Rumble at Mapes Beach on March 6-7, where the Bruins will face Grand Canyon, Washington, Oregon, and Stanford.
The Bruins will then host the annual East Meets West Invitational at iconic Manhattan Beach Pier on March 13-14. The Bruins will open with Arizona State and LSU on day one and conclude the event with Texas and FiU.
After a week off, UCLA will head to Austin, Texas to compete in the Texas Invitational on March 27-28. The Bruins will take on LSU, Texas, North Florida, and Florida Atlantic at Wright-Whitaker Sports Complex.
The sixth tournament of the season will take place in Laguna Beach, Calif., where the Bruins will face Cal Poly, Stanford, USC, and Long Beach State at the Best in the West tournament on April 3-4 at the Main Beach.
The final regular season tournament will see the Bruins in San Luis Obispo, Calif., for the Center of Effort Challenge on April 10-11. UCLA will open with California and Cal Poly on the first day and will conclude bracket play with Arizona State on day two before heading into the playoff portion of the bracket.
The Bruins will complete their home slate with CSU Bakersfield on April 14 at 3:00 p.m. PT for “Senior Day,” and will conclude the regular season with a date at USC on April 16 at Noon.
For the second straight year, the Bruins will head to Spiker Beach in Hutington Beach, Calif., for the 2026 MPSF Championship Tournament (April 22-24). The winner will earn the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Championship Tournament in Gulf Shores, Ala., to be held May 1-3.
2026 UCLA Women’s Beach Volleyball Schedule
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Sports
UMBC Baseball Releases 2026 Schedule
BALTIMORE — UMBC Baseball coach Liam Bowen announced the Retrievers 2026 schedule on Monday afternoon. The 52-game slate features 25 contests at Alumni Field, highlighted by a visit from Maryland on April 7.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL SCHEDULE
The non-conference road schedule features the first trip to Longwood since 2012 to open the season (2/20-2/22), and the first ever meetings with Penn (3/7-/3/8) and Florida Atlantic (3/13-3/15).
After the Longwood series, home Opening Day at Alumni Field will be on February 24 against Georgetown at 3 p.m., followed by a weekend series with Monmouth (2/27-31). UMBC will then play midweeks at George Washington (3/3) and Delaware State (3/4) before heading to Penn. They then return home to face Mount St. Mary’s (3/10), travel to FAU and then host a rematch with Delaware State (3/17).
America East play then begins as the Dawgs host Maine (3/20-3/22), they then have road tilts Coppin State (3/24) at UAlbany (3/27-29) before closing March by hosting George Washingto (3/31). April opens with a three-game non-conference home series against Iona (4/2-4/4) followed by the visit from the Terps.
Trips to Binghamton (4/10-4/12) and Georgetown (4/14) are then followed with a four-game homestand against UMass Lowell (4/17-4/19) and Towson (4/21). The Retrievers then make the return trip to Maine (4/24-4/26) and head to La Salle (4/28) before returning to Alumni Field to host UAlbany (5/1-5/3) and Coppin State (5/5).
The regular season wraps with trips to Bryant (5/8-5/10) and Towson (5/12), and then NJIT (5/14-5/16) comes to Baltimore for senior weekend.
The America East Tournament begins the following wek in Binghamton. The top six teams qualify, with the top two earning a bye to the double-elimination portion of the bracket.
Sports
Men’s Volleyball Picked to Finish Fifth in Inaugural Season’s NEC Preseason Coaches’ Poll
BRIDGEWATER, NJ – The NEC has announced the 2026 Men’s Volleyball Preseason Coaches’ Poll, that featured the Manhattan Jaspers placing fifth, per release on Tuesday afternoon.
“I’m excited to begin competing this weekend, after a semester of hard work with the team,” said Head Coach Chris Schortgen.
“We have a competitive schedule ahead of us full of opportunity and I know our guys will make the most of these opportunities.”
The Jaspers open their stint as Associate Members of the NEC with a 15-squad roster, which includes 12 freshmen, and will be immediately eligible to compete in the 2026 NEC Men’s Volleyball Championship come the end of April.
Full List:
T1. Daemen (3)
T1: Saint Francis (2)
3. LIU (1)
4. FDU (1)
5. Manhattan
6. University of Maryland Eastern Shore
7. D’Youville
This season, the Jaspers have packed in a schedule that features teams like Penn State, and Loyola Chicago, while playing home matches against Roosevelt, and conference foes such as LIU, Saint Francis University, and FDU to open its Draddy Gymnasium residency.
The Men’s Volleyball program will open its first ever season on Saturday, January 10, when the Jaspers visit the Nittany Lions of Penn State for a 3 p.m. start in State College. The contest will be viewable on Big Ten Network Plus with a paid subscription.
Sports
Gleason Named Head Sports Performance Coach
VESTAL, N.Y. – The Binghamton Division of Athletics has announced that Lori Gleason has been named its new Head Sports Performance Coach. Having served as an assistant and associate sport performance coach on the staff since 2006, she was promoted to the head job effective Jan. 2.
Gleason will oversee the sports performance programming for all 21 Bearcat athletic programs. In this role, she will lead two assistant sports performance coaches and collaborate closely with team coaches and student-athletes to establish and uphold training programs and performance standards that support continued growth and development of student-athletes.
“Lori has a long-standing reputation as a leader and mentor whose impact extends well beyond the weight room,” Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Sports Medicine & Performance Kara Gorgos said. “Her elevation to Head Sports Performance Coach is a testament to her dedication to Binghamton Athletics and her proven ability to continue raising the performance standards of our student-athletes. We are excited for the continued evolution and advancement of our sports performance program under Lori’s leadership.”
“I would like to thank Binghamton University, Director of Athletics Eugene Marshall Jr, the search committee, and my supervisor Kara Gorgos for this incredible opportunity to move into the role of Head Sports Performance Coach,” Gleason said. “Also, for the continuous support I have been given, I would like to thank my family and coworkers/coaching staff. I am very excited and look forward to growing our area, as well as collaborating with our staff as we all work together to achieve what is most important for our student athletes to be successful in their sport and performance.”
Since being hired as an Assistant Sports Performance Coach in 2006, Gleason has worked directly with seven of the Bearcat athletic programs, six of which have captured America East team championships during her tenure. In addition, Gleason has worked with a track & field program that has produced one NCAA champion as well as seven other All-Americans during that same span.
In 2024, Gleason was elevated to Senior Assistant Sports Performance Coach. Her additional duties included collaborating on the Bearcat teams’ performance programs and injury prevention tactics, establishing a 15+ week Preventive Exercise Plan specifically for ACL injuries and providing mentorship for the Sports Performance interns. In addition, Gleason served as an Athletic Department staff liaison for the Student-Athlete Mental Health Committee.
A 2002 graduate of SUNY Cortland, Gleason went on to earn her Master’s Degree in Applied Exercise Science from Springfield College in 2006. She served as both an intern and graduate assistant strength coach during her years at Springfield.
TRANSACTION
Binghamton University – Lori Gleason named Head Sports Performance Coach
Sports
UCSB Track and Field Announces 2026 Season Schedule
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – UC Santa Barbara has officially announced their meet schedule for the upcoming 2026 outdoor season. The calendar features 14 regular-season meets during the spring, 13 of which will be held across California, featuring three home meets. Following the regular season, the Gauchos will compete at the Big West Championships and the postseason continues into June with the NCAA West Preliminary Round and the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
The season will kick off with two home meets on Pauley Track, featuring the two-day Sam Adams Combined Events on March 5 and 6, followed by the Gaucho Relays on March 7.
The Gauchos will compete in two more meets for the remainder of March, including the Westmont Dual on March 13 to the neighboring Westmont College. Their next stop will be at the Jim Bush Legends Meet, hosted by UCLA on March 28.
On the first weekend of April, UCSB will compete in three separate meets, featuring the Stanford Invite and Mike Fanelli Distance Carnival in the Bay Area, as well as the Triton Invite in San Diego. Each meet will be two days, held on April 3 and 4.
Up next, the UCSB heptathletes and decathletes will take to the track at the Bryan Clay Multi April 9 and 10, overlapping with the Challenge Cup on April 10.
Santa Barbara will be featured in three different meets the following weekend, marking their return to Azusa Pacific from April 16 to 18 for the Bryan Clay Invite. The Guachos will also be seen in action at the Long Beach Invite hosted by Long Beach State April 17 and 18, as well as at the renowned Mt. Sac Relays at Hilmer Lodge Stadium April 16 to 18.
The Gauchos will take to their home track one last time before entering the postseason at the UCSB Invite, the two-day meet being hosted from April 24 to 25. The following weekend, Santa Barbara will travel to the Northeast, where they will compete at the prestigious Penn Relays hosted by the University of Pennsylvania.
UC Santa Barbara’s postseason opens up with the Big West Multi Championships held on May 8 to 9 at Anteater Stadium in Irvine, Calif., then the remainder of the championships meet schedule will fill up two action-packed days of competition May 15 and 16 at Long Beach State.
Based on their performance throughout the postseason, the Gauchos have the chance to move on to the NCAA West Prelims hosted by the University of Arkansas, May 27 through 30. The NCAA National Championships will be held June 10 through 13 in Eugene, Ore.
Sports
Texas Sports Writers Association honors El Paso HS volleyball players
Jan. 6, 2026, 12:18 p.m. MT
Three El Paso high school volleyball players have been named to the Texas Sports Writers Association All-State volleyball team for the recently completed 2025 season.
- Chapin junior outside hitter Zoeh Cereceres was named Honorable Mention All-State in Class 5A. This past season, she had 501 kills, 43 aces, 35 blocks and 191 digs. Cereceres helped Chapin to the District 1-5A title and one playoff victory.
- Eastlake senior middle blocker Mia Carrasco was named Honorable Mention All-State in Class 6A. Carrasco finished the 2025 season with 240 kills and 115 blocks. Carrasco helped the Falcons to a District 1-6A title and two playoff wins.
- Eastlake freshman outside hitter Giselle Gandara was named Honorable Mention All-State in Class 6A. Gandara finished the season with 427 kills, 378 digs and 58 blocks. Gandara was also named a Freshman All-American in Class 6A by MaxPreps after the recently completed season.
Felix F. Chavez can be reached@fchavez@elpasotimes.com; @Fchavezeptimes on X
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