John Mabry: Nebraska Volleyball - The Origin Story - ITCM 51

Three assistant women's volleyball coaches from Creighton, Kansas State and UCLA discuss their roles in recruiting, training and developing players at their successful programs.

Two of the coaches - Angie Oxley and Fiona Nepo - starred at the University of Nebraska, while Stevi Robinson excelled at indoor volleyball at Pepperdine and beach volleyball at USC.

Fiona coached for several years as an assistant at a Hawaii high school before moving on to college coaching at Iowa State and West Virginia. Stevi has coached at The Citadel, Gonzaga and Cal State Bakersfield before recently joining UCLA. Angie has been coaching for 21 years at Creighton with Kirsten Bernthal Booth and has helped lift the Bluejays to national prominence.

Host Terry Pettit joins the conversation, revealing what the average fan may not know about being an assistant coach.

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As a freshman this past season, setter Bergen Reilly helped lead Nebraska Volleyball to a Big Ten title and an appearance in the NCAA Championship Game against Texas.

Former All-American and Huskers' assistant coach Val Novak Warrior joins Reilly and Terry Pettit in a conversation about the setter position and what it takes to play at a supreme level.

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Taryn Kloth, along with partner Kristen Nuss (TNK), is currently ranked 2nd in the world in beach volleyball and will likely represent the U.S. in this year's Paris Summer Olympics.

Their meteoric rise from an unranked team that had trouble getting into professional tournaments, to one that won the Beach Pro Tournament Finals in December, is a story straight out of a Hollywood script.

Taryn talks about her journey from Sioux Falls, Iowa to Omaha, Nebraska, where she became a front-row attacker for Kirsten Bernthal-Booth at Creighton. Her next stop was LSU, playing beach volleyball despite never playing in the back row, and going two seasons without losing a collegiate match.

It is a conversation filled with courage and commitment.

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Jordan Larson has led USA Women's Volleyball to silver, bronze and gold medals in the last three Olympics.

As she prepares to play in the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, Jordan also continues in her new role as an assistant coach at her alma mater, the University of Nebraska.

Terry chats with Jordan about balancing the two and much more!

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Bill Byrne was a Hall-of-Fame Director of Athletics for 30 years at Oregon, Nebraska and Texas A&M. His son, Greg, has been an AD at Mississippi State, Arizona and is currently at Alabama, where the Crimson Tide are currently preparing for their College Football Playoff matchup with Michigan on New Year's Day.

The two join Terry Pettit to discuss Bill's remarkable tenure at Nebraska, the challenges of athletic leadership today and Greg's path toward becoming a highly-successful AD as well.

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It is one of the best volleyball rivalries in the entire nation: Nebraska vs. Wisconsin.

John Baylor has been the play-by-play announcer for Nebraska Volleyball since 1994, calling each of the Cornhuskers' five national championships. Dennis Punzel is a beat writer for the Wisconsin State Journal, covering Badger Volleyball. He has also authored "Point Wisconsin," a book that chronicles Badgers' head coach Kelly Sheffield and the 2021 national championship team.

Baylor and Punzel join host Terry Pettit to discuss the upcoming match between the Huskers and Badgers in Madison, outlining the strengths of each program and the potentially significant implications on seeding for the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

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On Wednesday, January 24th, 2024, the Omaha Supernovas will host the Atlanta Vibe in the first-ever match of the new Pro Volleyball Federation at the CHI Center.

The President of the Supernovas, Diane Mendenhall, was a state champion volleyball player at Ogallala High School and college coach before becoming the University of Nebraska's first Director of Operations for women's volleyball in 2000. She then became the Director of Development and Senior Associate Athletic Director, while also serving as a color analyst on the Cornhuskers' radio broadcasts.

Diane talks with Terry about her goals for the franchise on-and-off the court, ranging from ticket sales to establishing a high-performance team for world-class athletes.

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Former Nebraska All-American setter Val Novak Warrior joins Terry in a conversation with John Mabry about his recently released book, "Nebraska Volleyball: The Origin Story."

Mabry, the former sports editor of the Lincoln Journal-Star, has written the first book on the history of Nebraska volleyball, from its beginning years following the enactment of Title IX through its first national championship in 1995.

His book explores the program's unique relationship with its fans and how the nation's most avid volleyball community evolved in the heartland.

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Three Hall-of-Fame volleyball coaches share insights about their teaching methods and the adjustments they would make if they were coaching today.

Laurie Corbelli played on the 1984 U.S. Olympic Women's Volleyball Team and won a silver medal, then was the head coach at Texas A&M from 1993 through 2017. Don Shaw won four national championships at Stanford University. Steve Shondell won four national high school championships at Muncie Burris High School in Muncie, Indiana.

All three speak with host Terry Pettit about their mentors and their challenges in coaching.

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On August 30th, history was made as a Nebraska volleyball match set a world record, with 92,000 people in attendance.

Lexi Rodriguez, the Cornhuskers' stellar libero, played in the match. Randy Gobel coordinated the infrastructure for the event at Memorial Stadium. Stephanie Thater-Brown, a former Huskers' All-American, attended the match with her daughter.

All three share stories from different perspectives on how Volleyball Day affected their lives.

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