In the past few weeks, many freshmen on college volleyball teams have moved in and started training with their new team for the first time.
That is not the case for setter Bergen Reilly and the other freshmen on the Nebraska volleyball team. They all arrived in January.
A quick recap of what they’ve already done as Huskers: beach volleyball season, spring practice, a scrimmage against Creighton, the spring match against Wichita State in Central City and a 2½ week training trip to Brazil.
Then, soon after getting back from Brazil, the team started summer strength and conditioning workouts, which begin at 7 a.m.
So instead of spending the summer learning how to fit in with a college team, Reilly is already thinking about what she has to do to prove that she can be Nebraska’s starting setter at some point during her first season.
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Reilly or junior Kennedi Orr will be the setter, almost certainly in a traditional one-setter offense.
“I think I’m just kind of nailing the fundamentals right now,” Reilly said in June in an interview on the Huskers Radio Network. “Open gyms are all player-led. There are no coaches there. So it’s staying disciplined with all of those (fundamentals).
“Going into this season I’m kind of just trying to be a little more creative with my offense and get different routes and get different hitters on different plays, whatever it is. I just kind of want to get a Nebraska offense going that will win us a national championship.”
The size and speed of the blockers in college will be a major step up from high school, but Reilly does come with valuable experience playing for the United States junior national team. At the 2022 Pan American Cup, she helped the U.S. win the gold medal and was named tournament MVP and best setter.
Last fall, the product of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, also got to spend some time with the United States senior national team at one of its second-tier tournaments because one of the team’s setters got COVID.
With college teams in season and not willing to let a top setter leave, Reilly got the call-up on short notice. She made two starts as the Americans earned the silver medal at the Pan Am Final Six in the Dominican Republic.
“It was the opportunity of a lifetime, and I will forever get to say that I played with some of the best players in the country,” Reilly said.
While the level of play was a considerable jump, Reilly felt prepared for the moment.
“I was talking with Tori Dilfer — she was the other setter on the team — and it was just kind of cool to see (that) setting is ultimately the same,” Reilly said. “You have to get the ball to the right location, at the right tempo and it will work out. But it was also cool to see that we had the same struggles, too. She’s like, ‘Sometimes the hitters aren’t going to be there and they’re going to tell you they want it higher but you know it’s the right set, so just keep setting that.’ So I was like, ‘Oh, I have that too.’ It was interesting learning from her because she had five or six years of experience on me but we were still kind of going through the same thing.”
Three years ago, Reilly would not have expected to be playing at Nebraska. Before the recruiting process really got going for her class, she did not have Nebraska on her list of top schools.
She was also considering Wisconsin, Minnesota, Texas, Kentucky and Purdue.
However, Nebraska quickly shot up her list after attending Nebraska’s setter camp and Dream Team Camp. After initially planning to take her time making a decision, she was afraid she might regret letting the spot slip to someone else.
“I was like, ‘I can’t risk losing this (roster spot). I can’t let anybody else have this,’” Reilly said. “So I committed, and it was history.”
Reilly is already familiar with college volleyball because her sister, Raegen, is the starting setter for South Dakota State. The sisters won a state championship together in high school.
“We always would train together. We would go in to practice early together,” Reilly said. “During COVID we got a million reps together because there was nothing else we could do. I don’t think I’d be where I was without her.”
Reilly is looking forward to her first college season, especially the Aug. 30 outdoor match at Memorial Stadium against Omaha.
“I just don’t think it will ever set in until we’re actually playing in it,” she said. “I just remember coach (John Cook) saying, ‘We’re going to play a stadium game and we think we’ll get (30,000) or 40,000 people.”
Cook underestimated the crowd — about 83,000 tickets were sold in just two days in April. Now the attendance could top 90,000.
“It’s unreal the fan base that Nebraska has for women’s sports,” Reilly said. “It’s one of the main reasons why I came here. I can’t wait to experience it.”