The Sweet 16 round is on and all the teams are fighting for a chance in the elite eight. Just before Nebraska meets Dayton, Texas A&M faced off with Wisconsin, and what a battle royal this was! The No. 2 seeded Badgers engaged in a fierce battle in an offense oriented match against the No. 6 Texas A&M to win 25-21, 18-25, 25-19, 23-25, 15-13 and move through to the Regional Final for the seventh consecutive year.

Sarah Franklin led the team with 21 kills, while Carter Booth smashed a career-high 14 kills, and Anna Smrek chipped in 10 to complete a double-figure effort. The team hit .257 (67 kills – 22 errors – 175 attempts) on the night. But even with all that, Nebraska and their fans managed to swoop in! How did they do it?

Nebraska makes it to another game!

Lincoln Arneal, who covers Nebraska volleyball for Huskers Illustrated, hopped on X on December 13th to share a hilarious tweet. It read, “They just showed a Nebraska fan with a sign that said ‘Go Big Red’ on the video board. He flipped it over and it said ‘Temporary A&M Fan.’ The entire Devaney Center broke out into a ‘Let’s Go Aggies’ chant.” Classic college sports moment!

While Emily Ehman, a former volleyball player turned broadcaster, shared on X, “Rivalries are so dang fun because who would’ve ever thought Nebraska fans would root this hard for Texas A&M?” And honestly, it was hilarious! Seeing Nebraska fans cheering for Texas A&M to take down Wisconsin, their biggest rivals, added a wild twist to the match.

However, Wisconsin proved too strong in the end, securing the victory. Now, if Nebraska can defeat Dayton in their next match, they’ll set up a high-stakes showdown with Wisconsin in the elite eight. Talk about rivalries heating up—what’s the deal with this Nebraska-Wisconsin rivalry anyway?

The high-stakes rivalry!

When Nebraska and Wisconsin clashed for the 2021 women’s volleyball national championship, it was a showdown for the ages. The Badgers clinched their first-ever title in a five-set thriller, leaving the Huskers just short of their sixth crown. That epic battle, watched by a record-setting crowd of 18,755, became a defining moment not just for the two teams but for the sport itself. “Not only has the rise of Nebraska and Wisconsin and the rivalry fueled each other, but I think it’s sparked massive interest in the sport from people who otherwise were not paying attention,” said Emily Ehman. And three years later, the passion for this rivalry is as high as it was back then.

Jump to this year and the Nebraska Huskers and Wisconsin Badgers are once again on course to meet on the field, which could mean a repeat of the previous epic battles. With Nebraska’s squad returning its entire starting lineup, featuring standout sophomores and seasoned seniors, the Huskers have been nothing short of dominant. On the flip side, Wisconsin has relied on freshman setter Charlie Fuerbringer to execute a very balanced attack, which Ehman says makes her “the hardest job in college volleyball right now.”

Though the Badgers have fallen to Nebraska twice this season, they’ve been hot since late September, losing only two matches and are not pushovers. Could Wisconsin make the necessary changes to unseat the Huskers? “It’s hard to beat a good team three times,” said Holly McPeak, a former UCLA player and an ESPN analyst. But can they? “That’s a big ask.”

But if this Nebraska-Wisconsin brewing rivalry is not enough of a storyline, the game will be played in the first ABC-televised regional final—further proof that volleyball’s popularity is soaring. Oh, and let’s not forget about the Penn State volleyball coach, Katie Schumacher-Cawley, who coached the team through a Big Ten championship while fighting breast cancer. But all attention is still on Lincoln, where the Huskers and Badgers could write the next chapter in their rivalry. Who will advance, who will be eliminated, and will Nebraska or Wisconsin make it to the Final Four? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!