1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Nebraska volleyball falls to Texas A&M: December 15, 11:25am

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

Aggies upset Nebraska in the Regional Final. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Hey, what's up y'all? Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. My favorite thing about the holidays? Decking out my whole house. It's not a competition, but if it was, well, I'd win the season with Wayfair. Outdoor inflatable Santa? Got it on Wayfair. Trees, lights and ornaments? Wayfair. Hosting must-havs, like dining sets, beds, sheets, and towels. Wayfair. For everything in your style delivered with fast and free shipping, visit Wayfair.com or the Wayfair app to win the season. But again, it's not a competition. Did you just, like, give up or something? Yeah, he didn't give up. He said don't give up his entire career and then his go out his eye, just give up.

But, yeah, that's... I didn't see that coming. Yeah, there you go. Wave your hand in your face. All right, let's continue this discussion. I did... I mentioned at the beginning, though, there are a little bit of bad news

from the weekend as well as the Nebraska volleyball team. Season ends with that lost at Texas A&M. Just about everything that went wrong pre-match we're good of. for the Huskers. So that depth that we always talk about was kind of taking a hit there. And then of course fell behind in the two hole

and had to do everything to get back into it. Set number four was absolutely incredible. One of the most exciting you know, your heart was just kind of bumping every second that went to the distance. Obviously the season ends a little bit

disappointing because you have the undefeated team and the number expectations were what we always say. Final four Bust and for this team specifically was kind of championship or bust because of how good they played. What was you guys this kind of viewing experience and in thoughts after the game here? Nick, you go first. You watch more of than I did. Yeah, I think, you know, it's really unfortunate.

I never, I'll say the same thing I told AD this morning. I'm never going to use the excuse card. But I think the fact of the matter and stuff that you're not going to see on the stat sheet is that the fact. is that the fact that Andy Jackson just you had to sit in All-American yesterday. That's really hard to replace, whether you're in Nebraska who's got all-conference type of players on your two-deep or not. And so now there's going to be a lot of questions on whether or not they should have. And should they have put her back in or what was the case there and stuff? But I think yesterday it was a situation of that built up with there was some sickness.

going around, and I'll say that with some very key players that gutted it out yesterday. Because, and also at that same spot, you had injuries. And Campbell Flynn wasn't able to go. And on top of that, Allie Check, who is a piece that for a Nebraska volleyball program that doesn't utilize the portal. You just don't because you bring them up through your farm system, so to speak. you go out and you are very, you're able to be very selective and very picky in who you bring in.

And Allie Check is a player that they identified and viewed as somebody that could really help them throughout the season. And ultimately, her getting hurt pregame probably messing things up. And probably they probably had to make some last second adjustments. Now, I say all this to not to discredit Texas A&M because A&M came out with a really good game plan.

I felt like this is the most Nebraska's been tested. physically since the Kentucky match way at the start of the season. And this, I thought that A&M's middles matched Nebraska's middles, especially without Andy Jackson, as well as anybody has all season long. And, you know, it's just a, I think back and go, man, we're acting like things are atrocious. And we were getting, you know, DBK on our show earlier was getting kind of not harassed, but talked about on the text line as they, she's got to do something different.

He's got to have some more fire under her on the bench. And I'm sitting here going, think about what we're saying. Like the expectation that we put on this Nebraska volleyball program year in and year out is national championship robust. Now, don't get me wrong. If Nebraska goes next year and doesn't win one, then you're going to look at this core Nebraska's had. And Rebecca Alec obviously graduating this season. But next year, especially with Cho Boy and Jackson and Harper Murray, yeah, it's okay to look back and go, probably should have won one or two with that core. but also think about what we're what we expect from this team.

We expect them to just be a shoe into the final four into the national championship match every year. You get out swung. You get out killed. You barely out dig. You get out blocked. And the other team has more aces than you. And I won this game.

Statistically. And yet, as much as maybe the fourth set was a drain on Nebraska having to come back, to me, I have to go back to that first set. You're up five. You have A&M at arm's length. And you give up a 10-0 run in your own gym, you couldn't find a way to manufacture one point and get out of rotation in the hardest gym to play in America.

I get it's a five-set match. But this is a team that had dominated first sets. That was a big part of their success was they gave themselves so much margin for error by winning that first set. Then other teams had to be perfect to just get one off Nebraska. And sure, credit A&M for if we're going on that,

no run. I don't think anyone's done that against Nebraska this year, especially not in this home gym. That to me is probably the most disappointing part. Last year, it was being two points away from going to play for a national championship and not being able to close it out, right? You have to credit Penn State, but that came late in that match. This came early in that match. A&M knew it had to come out and set the tone early. Nebraska having that lead and not being able to extend that lead in the first set and find a way to win it, set the tone. Gave A&M confident because then, hey, guess what? Back and forth, second set.

And then your margin for error is gone. Yeah. A&M is playing well. A&M's on a role. A good enough third set for Nebraska. Back and forth. If Nebraska ends of that set at, you know, 34, 32, is it any different? If it's 29, 27, isn't any different in the fifth?

I don't know. But again, A&M started fast, and A&M got out to that fast start in the fifth set, which is where you think of a team as dominant as Nebraska, where they needed to be better, where they had been so good this year, especially in the first set. To me, it's that 10-0 run that I think really set the tone for the whole match.

Yeah. I think, Bach, when you look at Nebraska, and that's where it's almost surprising because it's so uncharacteristic for Nebraska. I think it's more, instead of anger or frustration, it's a little more shock for us. because as we watch Husker volleyball on a consistent basis guys

and over the last couple of years it's almost a shock when they lose and sometimes I'm not trying to downplay it one bit but I just think that there's sometimes you just don't have it and yesterday because of a variety of things

right both on the floor and off the floor in their control and out of their control they just didn't have it and now Nebraska is going to be looking for a couple holes to fill going in the next year. But obviously, just the one loss on the season, you lose to a team that by default of the matchup

is a Final Four team. So, you know, obviously a great year, unfortunately that it came down to that. But, you know, it went five sets. You know, and I think BBK was kind of saying that after the game, too, is like, there's disappoint, but it's not in, you know, how much you put out there, how much effort that they expanded into this thing. So, I mean, it was, it's there.

It's going to be there every year for Nebraska. It's crazy, though, guys, because, like, they played probably their worst match from start to finish that they have all year and it's still, they still took a team to five sets in the elite eight. Yeah. Like, we're talking about, you basically played a top eight team in the country,

played your worst match, and you, you took them to the end. Like, you essentially lost by two. Yeah. I just, it's, it was so uncharacteristic because to, to win a set 37, 35, and I'm not, once again, not trying to downplay it or, you know, take anything away from A&M, but also at the end of the day,

like Nebraska slipped up for 10 points, essentially, in that first set. And that was the biggest difference point. It was a bad day to have a bad day. Yeah. And I want to be, you know, process oriented because this team has been so close, but Nebraska just hasn't had it.

Yeah. For a decade now, essentially, since 2017. And again, I think it's harder, to win a national championship in volleyball now than ever before. I think parity has really increased. I think that the teams are the top of the sport is not just one or two, and you're just waiting to see, or maybe which two of the three, you know,

superpowers in the sport and make it to the end. I mean, there are seven, eight legitimate national title contenders this year. And I think that that bears mentioning. Yeah. But I think to your point before, Nick, too, if this core doesn't get one, you can only be, you know, process-oriented, is a program for so long.

You have to be, I think, to continue to sustain the way that Nebraska has. But at some point, this court just hasn't gotten the results. Even in the era where it's harder to win a title than ever, even in the era of the most loaded conference in volleyball, we sent eight teams to the tournament yet again, at some point, you've got to get one. Or this is legitimately a disappointment. As good as it has been, if it's title or bust, you can only say, well, you have next year, I'll give them a pass for the freshman year.

they were physically outgunned by an older, more mature Texas team. But don't forget what you said after those matches, that match too. Think how good they'll be next year. Yeah. Think how good they'll be the year after. And once again, and they haven't gotten back. And what the player said. Like, you will never forget after Nebraska lost the national championship,

their freshman year, it was Harper Murray sitting up at the podium as a freshman saying that they were going to win three in a row. and you haven't even got back since. And from that moment, you put, and I'm not, I'm not saying you shouldn't have said that. And there's been a lot of things that people can criticize hard before. I love the conference at the time. Absolutely.

But from that moment, you not only put a bullseye on your back, but on everybody that is associated with Nebraska volleyball on their back because of what you just said there. And it's a lot harder to do than maybe what we realized in the moment. And once again, I, I love. love the confidence, and I'm not saying you should come out and be like, yeah, well, you know, we hope to get back here next year. Have the expectation that you're going to get back there.

But in the way you say it, understand the weight of it as well. And maybe, you know, from that point on, that's going to be something that people point to and say, okay, you brought this expectation on yourself, and now you've shown the inability to get back there. And that's, that's where it's really, I mean, that's where the storyline really comes to. It's a program that they've been saying this year is more about, you know, kind of about banners. And so, you know, as this moment happens, it can be frustrating to come short of that goal. Again, you know, since they have won that town 2017, they've played for it three times.

You know, so if they're off, it's a small margin. But again, that's a, you know, as we know, only one team is going to leave this tournament off on a win. So it's a, it's not unfamiliar for the sport. it's uh it's obviously frustrating here and again you feel like this team when you're undefeated and you have a chance to to finish the season undefeated then you get to jump into the best of all time discussions yeah so i think that's kind of part of the fall too was like what could this team be the greatest of all time to fall to okay they didn't make the final four um and so that you know very deflating but hats off to the team for what they did this year and hats off

to pen uh or the bob vaney sports center yesterday uh incredible crowd in all season long but that game was in that atmosphere was just great. And for the growth of volleyball, I think continued that. So let's go ahead and take quick break. One thing that did happen, Treve Alberts was in town, and Scott Frost is suing Nebraska. We'll talk about those things next year on 93-7 the ticket.