No. 1 Nebraska Faces No. 2 Texas In Las Vegas Season Opener
Top-ranked Nebraska and No. 2 Texas will meet Sunday afternoon at the Players Era Volleyball Showcase in Las Vegas, marking the programs' first regular-season match against each other in a decade. The two women's volleyball powers last faced off in the 2023 national championship, which Texas won.
The Longhorns and Huskers built one of college volleyball's defining rivalries over more than four decades, dating to their first meeting in 1981 at the Oral Roberts Invitational, where Texas swept both matches of a doubleheader. That season, Texas went on to win the AIAW championship in the organization's final year of existence, while Nebraska - already an NCAA program - missed the 20-team NCAA tournament despite a fourth straight unbeaten Big 8 conference season, the only such omission in program history. beach volleyball betting
Nebraska got its first win over Texas in 1982 but did not beat the Longhorns again until 1988. The rivalry sharpened in 1995, when Nebraska, led by AVCA Co-Player of the Year Allison Weston, closed the season on a 31-match winning streak and beat Texas for its first national championship. That title arrived just as both programs prepared to join the newly formed Big 12 in 1996, with Texas coming from the Southwest Conference and Nebraska from the Big 8. The two schools dominated the new league for over a decade - Nebraska won or shared eight regular-season titles between 1996 and 2010, adding national championships in 2000 and 2006, while Texas won the 2009 title outright and captured a national championship in 2012. Nebraska departed for the Big Ten in 2011; Texas went on to win 12 of the next 13 Big 12 regular-season titles before leaving for the SEC in 2024, winning national titles in 2022 and 2023.
Nebraska holds a 25-23 edge in the all-time series, built largely on a 12-2 record during Big 12 play, though Texas has won seven of the last 10 meetings, including postseason matchups in 2020, 2021 and the 2023 title match. Both programs enter this season looking to move past stunning regional-final upsets last year - Nebraska fell to Texas A&M as the No. 1 overall seed, and Texas lost to No. 10 seed Wisconsin. Sunday's match in Las Vegas gives both teams an early measuring stick, and a chance to reassert themselves against a rival they have not faced since that 2023 championship.
