College volleyball is back on the scene and the top-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers kicked off the 2025 NCAA season in style last weekend, defeating both the No. 3 Pitt Panthers and No. 6 Stanford Cardinal with respective 3-1 and 3-0 results in the annual AVCA First Serve event.
The weekend wins mark a hot start for incoming Nebraska head coach and former Husker Dani Busboom Kelly, as the ex-Louisville Cardinals leader aims to push her alma mater to their first NCAA title since 2017 — following in the footsteps of Nebraska's four-time national champion coach John Cook, who stepped away last January.
"Dani's an awesome coach, and we've had so much fun with her, especially in this off-season," said Nebraska junior middle blocker Andi Jackson. "It's been just really fun getting to know her as a person and as a coach, and we've done a lot of really, really cool things."
"That intro was pretty unbelievable to start off college volleyball. For them to set the stage and set the tone that this sport is big-time was awesome," Busboom Kelly added after the Huskers' season-opening win on Friday.
Hot on No. 1 Nebraska's heels in the 2025 NCAA volleyball preseason rankings is reigning champion Penn State, with the pair leading the Big Ten's charge as the conference battles battles the also-stacked ACC for domination this season.
The No. 2 Nittany Lions also started their 2025 campaign with a big weekend win, sweeping the No. 12 Creighton Bluejays on Saturday's AVCA First Serve court.
How to watch top NCAA volleyball on Monday
The AVCA First Serve season kick-off wraps with two top-ranked matchups on Monday, when No. 2 Penn State will face the No. 14 Kansas Jayhawks at 6:30 PM ET before the No. 11 Minnesota Golden Gophers take on the No. 9 Texas A&M Aggies at 8:30 PM ET.
Both matches will air live on the Big Ten Network.
A legend in the sport of volleyball is stepping down, as longtime Nebraska head coach John Cook announced his retirement on Wednesday.
Joining Nebraska in 2000 after seven years with Wisconsin, Cook's 25 years at the Cornhuskers' helm included 14 conference titles, 12 trips to the NCAA Final Four, and four national championships (2000, 2006, 2015, 2017). Most recently, Cook led the team to back-to-back national semifinal appearances.
Even more, Cook turned Nebraska volleyball into a can't-miss phenomenon. The Huskers are currently riding a 339 home match sellout streak dating back to 2001 — an NCAA record for all women's sports.
The three-time AVCA National Coach of the Year (2000, 2005, and 2023) also helped Nebraska stage two volleyball matches in their football stadium in August 2023, when 92,003 fans packed Memorial Stadium to break the international women's sports attendance record.
Cook retires with an overall 883-176 career record — the fifth-best all-time winning percentage in Division I (DI) volleyball history. His 722-103 resume with Nebraska makes him the winningest DI coach in the sport this century.
"I’ve been here for 25 years. That’s a long time to do something. It’s been a great run," Cook said in the school's announcement.
"For me personally, the greatest accomplishment in coaching is seeing former players...taking the lessons they’ve learned from being a Nebraska volleyball player and applying it to their everyday lives," he continued. "There is no greater reward in coaching than that."
"I’ve always said to 'Dream Big,' and we’ve dreamed bigger than any volleyball program in the history of the world."
Alumna Dani Busboom Kelly succeeds Cook
Cook's successor is former Nebraska volleyball star Dani Busboom Kelly, who helped earn the 2006 national title as the starting libero before serving as Cook's assistant during the Cornhuskers' fourth title run in 2015.
Busboom Kelly took over as Louisville's head coach in 2017, leading the Cardinals to the program's first-ever Final Four in 2021 and following it up with national championship game appearances in 2022 and 2024. She exits the ACC squad with a 203-44 record and has agreed to a six-year contract with her alma mater.
"The opportunity to come home to Nebraska is more than a dream come true," Busboom Kelly said in a statement. "Nebraska is the greatest place in the world to play volleyball and I am honored to be a part of it once again!"