Dani Busboom Kelly is a worthy successor. A former Husker national champion and assistant coach, she took the Cardinals to two NCAA championship matches, three NCAA semifinals, and five regional finals. The Cardinals also won four ACC championships under her mentorship. But if you think she is only bringing the accolades with her to Nebraska, then you’ve got another thing coming.

I mean, her rivals are not going to forget about her just because she has changed teams. And as things stand, Dani Busboom Kelly might get an opportunity to reignite a former rivalry sooner than expected.

Lincoln Arneal of Huskers Illustrated took to X on Feb 4 to drop some spicy volleyball news, and let’s just say—it’s setting the stage for some must-watch matchups! Sharing the latest scoop, he revealed, “During an interview on @VolleyballPod, John Cook said Nebraska will play Kentucky in Nashville this fall. Tennessee and Purdue will also participate in the event at Bridgestone Arena.”

Arneal continued, “That means Dani Busboom Kelly will face familiar rivals Pitt and UK early in her NU stint.” In fact, DBK will face rivals Pittsburgh Panthers in her first game in charge of the Huskers at the 2025 AVCA First Serve poised to be held from August 22-24 at the Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Historically, Pitt has faced the Huskers 15 times and lost all the games, including five times in the NCAA tournament. And of course, there are those two shocking exits in the Final Four–in Columbus in 2021 and in Tampa in 2023. This will be the first time that the two teams will meet in a regular-season match since 2015, when Nebraska emerged as winners in four sets. In other words, it can be said that Pitt is eager to get a different result this time. So what is this Pitt and Dani Busboom Kelly’s former team’s rivalry all about?

Dani Busboom Kelly and her former rivals!

As DBK and Pitt’s coach Dan Fisher were bolstering their respective programs, they were also creating one of the best rivalries in college volleyball. In the last eight seasons that the coaches were in charge, the two teams’ overall record against each other stood at 9-9. While the Panthers have six ACC titles as opposed to the Cardinals’ four, the latter had the last laugh when it came to qualifying for the National Championship games in 2022 and 2024.

In 2022, Louisville managed to win the final set 15-2 after a hard-fought match, which earned them a place in the Championship game. And last year, while Olivia Babcock led the Panthers to a 25-21 victory in the first set, Dani Busboom Kelly’s Cardinals mounted a terrific comeback thanks, in no small part, to Anna DaBeer‘s match-saving dig in the third set. And while they couldn’t clinch their first-ever National Championship even then, the rivalry remained.

And now that rivalry is back, although in different colors. How do you think DBK is going to fare against one of her most prolific rivals? Let us know in the comments.