Nebraska Huskers volleyball coach Dani Busboom Kelly has praised the Big Ten Conference, which has ushered in a new program for women’s volleyball, a 15-team tournament. The proposed format of the tournament will be played from November 20-25 and will include a single elimination structure to add a new perspective to the game.
The Big Ten is said to have introduced this significant change in volleyball in three decades, which consistently ran a 20-match format. Starting in November, a new single-elimination tournament with 15 teams will be introduced, while the regular season will be reduced to 17 matches from 20, with teams facing each opponent once.
Busboom Kelly highlighted how the new format actually helps the players prepare for the intense format of the NCAA Tournaments.
“I’m fired up for it, I feel like it’s going to add some depth to our season. It’s a new challenge,” she said.
She, however, pointed out a small downside that could hurt the Huskers, relating to less crowd revenue when there are no games, but also mentioned how the team could schedule more non-conference matches to make up for the absence.
The Big Ten has notably never held a season-end tournament, hence making this a historical step to something new. Something similar was done by the Southeastern Conference last year, which saw title wins even before the NCAA championships. The matches are scheduled at the Fishers Event Center, Indianapolis, home to many All-Star volleyball leagues.
Dani Busboom Kelly Talks about Huskers’ Mental Recovery Post-Texas A&M Loss Last Season
Dani Busboom Kelly recently spoke about the tough end of the season when the Huskers were beaten by Texas A&M in a high-stakes clash. During an interview, Kelly spoke about how learning and taking one step at a time remain the only ways to fend off negativity and move forward.
“I don’t know if you ever fully recover from a season-ending like that, you wanna say you win or learn and we’re still learning from that and applying things to spring and hopefully preparing ourselves to better better starting this August,” she said (5:21).
Kelly highlighted how the shift in mindset will reflect the learnings and would prove even more crucial with the Big Ten’s new tournament move, which has only raised the stakes.
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