The University of Northern Colorado volleyball team, the defending Big Sky Conference Tournament champion, wraps up a portion of its offseason this weekend, and the Bears saved the best for last.
UNC will meet Nebraska, a five-time national championship program and Big Ten Conference member, in a scrimmage Saturday afternoon at Chadron State College in Chadron, Nebraska. Nebraska was undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the country for much of last season. The Cornhuskers lost in an NCAA Tournament regional final loss to eventual champion Texas A&M in December.
The scrimmage begins at noon Saturday at Chadron’s Chicoine Center. The match will be shown on Nebraska Public Media and Big Ten Plus, also known as B1G+ which is a subscription streaming service from the Big Ten Network.
Tickets sold out within a couple of hours after they went on sale March 26, according to a Chadron State College athletics social media post. Tickets were only available for in-person purchase at the football stadium on a first-come, first-serve basis. Social media posts showed long lines of fans who camped out for tickets.
There were 1,525 general admission seats available for $30 and 75 courtside seats went for $50, according to Chadron State. A maximum of four tickets were allowed per person, and sales were cash only.
A Chadron State news release in advance of ticket sales said fans must physically remain in line. Saving places in line for others was not allowed. Portable bathrooms were to be available on-site. Fans were permitted to have lawn chairs and sleeping bags in line, but tents, campers and other shelter was not allowed.
Doors to Chadron’s Chicoine Center open at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. No line for admission may form at the doors before 6 a.m. The general admission seats are first come, first serve, and some sections of these seats will be standing room only, also according to Chadron State athletics social media.
Nebraska volleyball is a big attraction. In 2023, the program set a world record for the largest crowd to watch a women’s sports event. A little more than 92,000 fans watched Nebraska beat Omaha at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln.
The program has a tradition of travelling around the state to play a spring exhibition match, according to Nebraska volleyball director of athletic communications Nate Pohlen. Pohlen said Chadron State had expressed an interest in hosting a match. Pohlen added Nebraska asked UNC if it wanted to play in Chadron since UNC is a Division I program within driving distance.
Greeley is about four hours from Chadron. UNC coach Lyndsey Oates said the team will bus to Chadron. UNC was allotted 100 tickets for the match, and about 25 Bears fans will also bus out to Chadron. Nebraska will reimburse UNC for about $1,500 to cover travel expenses and lodging.
“People on the west side of the state don’t get to see the home school, and it’s a big deal for Chadron to host this match,” Oates said. “Our fans too, and people who follow are aware what a big deal this is.”
There is a connection and history between UNC and Nebraska volleyball. Oates said the schools were scheduled to scrimmage a few years ago during COVID-19, but the match was called off. Nebraska’s director of operations is Lindsay Peterson, a former UNC assistant coach under Oates in the early 2000s. Peterson is a former Nebraska player.
Oates earlier this year hired another new assistant coach to replace longtime associate head coach Pi’i Aiu, who retired after last season. UNC earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament by winning the Big Sky title. The Bears pushed nationally ranked Creighton to five sets in a first-round match on Creighton’s home court.
Colin Heath, previously a Nebraska graduate assistant, was brought in to join the staff with Oates, Janae McDonnell and Jadyn Lamb. Lamb is also the program’s director of operations. She is a former UNC player from Chadron, Nebraska. She taught first grade in Pierce before moving to UNC in July 2024.
Bears middle blocker Maddie Rink is from Lincoln, she played at Lincoln Southwest High School and was a member of a state championship volleyball team.
UNC has reached the NCAA Tournament eight times under Oates, now in her 22nd season. The Bears have never won a first-round match. Oates has said many times it’s a goal for her and the program to “get over hump to win a first-round match” and to advance in the NCAA Tournament.
This is one of the objectives of the Nebraska scrimmage.
“The physicality and it’s a different style of play,” Oates said of the Huskers. “The more we see it and can adjust to it, and we can compete against it better.”
Oates said the physicality means Nebraska plays a higher and faster game. A volleyball net for college women is 7 feet, 4 inches off the floor at the center of the net. The Huskers play between 10 feet, 3 inches and 10-6 on average, Oates said. They’ll hit the ball with more speed than other opponents the Bears will face. This is a component of the game Oates wants her players to see and to play against.
“In the offseason, it’s about our development and want to see how can compete against a physical opponent and what they can exploit in us,” Oates said. “We just want to have all different types of teams (to play) to be more well rounded. It will be super helpful in the fall, and it will be different in the fall.”
UNC began its offseason training in February. They practiced 20 hours per week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday through the winter. The Bears played spring scrimmages against all regional Division I teams: Colorado, Colorado State, the Air Force Academy, the University of Denver and Wyoming, Oates said.
The scrimmage against Nebraska will be the fourth and final date of matches for the spring. The players will have time off as the academic semester winds down into early May. The team will resume workouts June 1, including the new freshmen.
UNC is going to Japan for matches June 14-24. UNC will play about four matches — the exact number hasn’t been set, Oates said — against semipro players who are college age and earning money playing the game.
“That’s where we’ll have quality time together and building team chemistry,” Oates said.
The players will remain in Greeley through the early summer while training, lifting weights and playing informally. They’ll work UNC camps in July and then have time off before reporting for fall preseason in early August.
The Bears’ open the regular season against Wyoming at 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 21 at Bank of Colorado Arena on the UNC campus.
“We’ve made more progress in practices than we’ve shown in matches, and we have five new players this semester,” Oates said, adding the new athletes have contributed.
UNC lost multiple players from last year’s senior class. The production of those athletes will have to be filled.
“We didn’t want to be younger and have a rebuilding year,” Oates said. “There is a learning curve, and I’m sure glad we’re doing it now rather than in August.”
