Husker Volleyball: Players Era Showcase Preview
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The Huskers became just a little bit richer after their short trip Dallas on Thursday night. In their first match against Florida, they got the 2-0 sweep, but definitely looked like they were playing their first match. Both their offense and defense looked rusty, but they came together to get that first win.
In the second semifinal, Penn State played SMU which was a back and forth match. After that match I think I’m tired of hearing Whitney Lauenstein’s name since the announcers were drooling over her the entire time like she was the only person on the court. It’s safe to say I’m not a fan of hers, or Penn State for that matter, after she left Nebraska in the way she did. SMU swept Penn State to join the Huskers in the final.
In the championship, Nebraska looked 10x better than the first match. In both sets, they went on 12-2 runs and SMU was never able to recover from this. A few bench players even got in at the end like Kenna Cogill, Keri Leimbach, Skyler Pierce, and Gabby DiVita. The Huskers got yet another sweep to take the first Spikes Under the Lights Championship.
After a quick trip to Dallas, the Huskers are on their way to Las Vegas, Nevada to play in yet another iconic sports venue: T-Mobile Arena, home of the Vegas Golden Knights. This will be the first-ever Players Era Volleyball showcase and will host Nebraska, Texas, UNLV, and TCU in the debut event. Nebraska will only play UNLV and Texas in their time in Vegas as all teams will only play 2 matches during the weekend. The Huskers have never played UNLV in volleyball while they are 33-25, all-time, against Texas.
More info about Players Era: “Players Era, a subsidiary of EverWonder Studio, was founded in 2024 to create a more equitable model for college sports that centers around valuing the players and expanding global fandom through the creation of first-of-their-kind world-class events. Players Era debuted with the 2024 Players Era Festival, which delivered a week-long celebration of college basketball – featuring exciting games and groundbreaking NIL activities for participating teams. Continuing its rapid expansion, in 2025 the annual showcase evolved into an 18-team Players Era Men’s Championship and the inaugural Players Era Women’s Championship, with both tournaments featuring the eventual national championship winning team.”
UNLV Rebels
2025 Record: 13-15
2025 Conference Record: Mountain West (7-11)
Last NCAA Tournament Appearance: 2022 (Lost to Washington St. in 1st Round)
Nebraska’s first match will be against UNLV on Saturday, August 29th and this will be the first time these two teams have ever met. UNLV didn’t face any ranked teams in the 2025 season, but did play B1G team, Iowa, in the non-conference and got swept.
UNLV has been picked to finish 6 of the 10 teams in the Mountain West Conference this year. Since this conference isn’t one of the Power 5, and don’t have a lot of the big named schools like Nebraska, this conference will probably only send 1 team to the tournament, that being their champion.
Other teams in the Mountain West Conference (MW) are UTEP, UC Davis, Grand Canyon, Wyoming, Hawaii, San Jose State, Air Force, Nevada, and New Mexico.
Even though UNLV isn’t considered a top team in the country, they have one of the top players in the conference this year as she was named MW Preseason Player of the Year. Junior Jaida Harris transferred into UNLV last season after spending her freshman year at Long Beach State. Her lone season at Long Beach was a redshirt season for her, which is now just considered her freshman year.
Harris is an outside hitter who won Newcomer of the Year in the MW last season and earned All-MW team honors. Harris was the Rebels’ offense last season with 370 kills, hitting .218% on the season and 3.52 kills/set. She also registered 52 blocks as well.
The Rebels also return their best middle blocker in junior Rheanna Deen-Jackson. She led the team in blocks with 123 total blocks, and 18 of these being solo. She is noticeably missing from the conference stats for blocks in the 2025 season. She would’ve been #1 on the list as the girl listed as #1 had 210 blocks as opposed to Deen-Jackson’s 123. Deen-Jackson also produces offensively as well with 1.52 kills/set, hitting .303%.
This match will be both teams’ first official match of the season after some exhibition matches for both teams. The match will begin at 5pm PT / 7pm CT on Saturday and will be televised on FS1.
UNLV Rebels
#0 Alexa Ankerstar 5’10” SO Setter
#1 Jada Ingram 6’0” JR MB
#2 Kadence Wilson 5’7” FR DS/L
#3 Tia Traudt 6’0” SO OH
#4 Cami Christiansen 6’3” JR OPP
#5 Arrie Brown 6’0” FR OH
#6 Kamiera Watkins 6’0” SR OPP/MB
#7 Julie Beckham 6’0” FR OH
#8 Caleigh King 5’6” SR DS/L
#9 Rheanna Deen-Jackson 6’1” JR MB
#10 Natalie Monroe 6’2” FR OH
#11 Logan Lindsay 6’2” SR OPP
#14 Sanja Popovic 6’2” FR MB
#15 Jaida Harris 6’2” RS-JR OH
#16 Sloan Cleveland 5’7” SO DS/L
#18 Brooklynn Williams 5’11” SO MB
#19 Kamryn Scroggins 5’9” 5th Year Setter
#21 Basia Latos 5’11” JR OH
#22 Kaia Thiele 5’11” SO Setter
Texas Longhorns (1-1)
2025 Record: 26-4
2025 Conference Record: 13-2
Last NCAA Tournament Appearance: 2025 (Lost to Wisconsin in the Regional Final)
The Texas-Nebraska matchup has to be one of the most anticipated, if not the most, this season and it is only the Huskers’ second match of the season. These two teams haven’t met in the regular season since the beginning of the 2016 season where the Huskers swept Texas. All Nebraska fans are hoping to see this same result especially after the 2023 National Title game where the Longhorns manhandled a young Huskers team.
Texas and Nebraska have played each other 48 times with the first match in 1981 and the last one in 2023. The Huskers are ahead in the win column as they are currently 25-23 against them all-time. Hopefully the Huskers can expand that gap by one more win after Sunday’s match.
Texas participated in the Week 0 event known as the AVCA First Serve. They were handed a loss in their very first match of the season against #12 Arizona State and Marquette also had them on the ropes taking the Longhorns to 5 sets where Texas eventually won.
Longhorn fans are probably pretty nervous about their team this year as their team looked far from championship caliber in the two matches. In their first match against ASU, they had 17 service errors. In the second match against Marquette, they had 24 to total 41 service errors in just 2 matches which is not good at all. Almost every server has pulled out the topspin serve, which usually includes the player throwing the ball high and slightly in front, or behind, of them. They, then, hit the top half of the ball to create a downward angle of force to generate forward spin. Brooklyn DeLeye, from Kentucky, is a good example if you want to see a good one.
Texas has a lot of their main pieces back this season in Torrey Stafford, Abby Vander Wal, Cari Spears, and Ramsey Gary. They also have Senior Ella Swindle back, who helped win a national championship for them her freshman year, but she has yet to see the court after the first weekend of play.
If you are on the volleyball side of social media, whether that be Twitter or Facebook, you are probably very aware that Texas fans are very ruthless against women on their own team. In the 2024 season, after they won their national championship, Averi Carlson got the starting job over Swindle and Texas fans destroyed Carlson online. Come the end of the season, Carlson transferred out of Texas and spent her final season at SMU. Now we don’t know for sure if this is because of fans berating her, but it probably didn’t help her mental.
Setters Rella Binney and Genevieve Harris have both gotten playing time this season as the Longhorns are running a 6-2, which people think they need to change as well. They have both played 9 sets each while Swindle just hasn’t seen the court yet. Good luck to Binney and Harris with their own fans because good lord they are crazy.
OH Torrey Stafford, OH Abby Vander Wal, and OH Cari Spears are the Longhorns’ 3-headed monster. They take the most swings and are really their whole team as they produce a lot for them. Last season, Stafford hit .360% (4.69 kills/set), Vander Wal hit .249% (2.62 kills), and Spears hit .295% (3.25 kills/set).
This match will be the Huskers first test of the season and probably their only test of the subpar non-conference schedule that they are playing to start this season. Their only other tough will come against Creighton, but it is at home so they will have an advantage.
Sunday’s match, against Texas, will begin at 12:30 PT / 2:30pm CT at T-Mobile Arena and will be available on Fox to watch.
#1 Nebraska Cornhuskers
#1 Keri Leimbach 5’4” SO DS/L
#2 Bergen Reilly 6’1” SR Setter
#3 Virginia Adriano 6’5” SO OPP
#4 Campbell Flynn 6’3” SO Setter
#6 Laney Choboy 5’3” SR DS/L
#8 Kenna Cogill 6’4” SO MB
#10 Olivia Mauch 5’6” JR DS/L
#11 Teraya Sigler 6’3” SO OH
#14 Manaia Ogbechie 6’3” SO MB
#15 Andi Jackson 6’3” SR MB
#17 Keoni Williams 6’4” FR MB
#18 Ryan Hunter 6’2” SO OPP
#20 Jayden Robinson 6’3” FR OH
#21 Skyler Pierce 6’2” JR OH
#23 Gabby DiVita 6’1” FR OH
#27 Harper Murray 6’2” SR OH
#2 Texas Longhorns (1-1)
#1 Ella Swindle 6’3” SR Setter
#2 Callie Krueger 5’6” SO DS/L
#3 Rella Binney 5’10” JR Setter
#4 Torrey Stafford 6’2” SR OH
#5 Genevieve Harris 5’11” FR Setter
#6 Abby Vander Wal 6’3” SO OH
#7 Mackenzie Collins 6’0” SO MB
#10 Taylor Harvey 6’3” SO MB
#14 Addy Gaido 6’4” SO OH
#16 Anja Kujundzic 5’5” SR DS/L
#17 Emma Cugino 5’9” FR DS/L
#22 Henley Anderson 6’3” FR OH
#23 Cari Spears 6’3” SO OH
#24 Camille Presley 6’2” FR MB
#32 Ramsey Gary 5’7” SR DS/L
#55 Nya Bunton 6’3” R-JR MB
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