It's Not To Work On Their Tans: Jaylen Talks About the Value of Husker Beach Season

Out of all of the collegiate Beach Volleyball programs in the country, Nebraska is an outlier. While teams like Texas and USC have their own curated rosters of beach-oriented players, the Huskers utilize their indoor Volleyball roster instead. Beach season helps hone skills that contradict the modern age of position-specific volleyball – like middle blockers passing serve receive and defensive specialists attacking. Because there are only two on the court instead of six, it forces those two to communicate efficiently and develop the skill set of an all-around player. We don’t often see Andi Jackson making diving digs and pancakes, but in the beach season, we have the pleasure of being able to. 

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I asked Head Beach Coach Jaylen Reyes for his expertise on how these technical skills translated to the indoor game; he named critical skills such as “passing, mindset serving, and hitting float serves” that are similar indoors, but says that footwork and approaches are very different. He emphasizes ball control as another fundamental that the beach helps fine-tune; like platform passing, setting, and defensively. “Even though it's beach volleyball, there are a lot of skills that are very different on the beach even though they have the same name. Setting, blocking, and floor defense are very different on the beach vs. indoor.” 

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Aside from the mere technical aspects, the girls also use this time to foster relationships and early bonds with the team. The freshman class has just arrived on campus (minus Manaia Ogbechie and Kenna Cogill, who will come in May) and it's imperative that they are able to gel with the upperclassmen. I asked Jaylen what has impressed him the most of the 2025 freshman class; “number one thing I love about all of them is they have high expectations for themselves and are very very self motivated.” High expectations, but work ethics to match those expectations.” The chance for freshman outside Teraya Sigler to form a strong connection with Bergen Reilly on the volleyball court is something that cannot be understated and will hopefully translate into the upcoming season and shine through in the fall. 

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I asked Jaylen what factors went into making the partner pairings; “On the surface, you try and get a big and little on each team to balance that factor; who is blocking and who is playing [floor] defense.” This is implemented in most professional beach pairings, and the best teams are the ones who can compliment each other best. In Nebraska’s case, their roster requires them to sometimes utilize two bigs on a team at once – athletes like Harper and Andi still make a good pair because they are both so athletic and versatile on both sides of the ball. “Another factor is what side of the court they are more comfortable playing on,” Jaylen adds, “For example, setters tend to like playing right because they play on that side of the court indoors.”

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In regards to scoring points, Jaylen tries to put people together that will work together to score points. “Maybe a big that is comfortable and good at attacking on the second contact, so you can put them with a small who can control the ball so they can hit it on 2.” He names Olivia and Rebekah as a good example of this strategy. Because liberos tend to get targeted in serve receive, Jaylen states it imperative to have a big who can not only go over on 2, but also set effectively. Additionally, he adds that personality plays a part as well – “it's great if they are a good fit together.”

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The Huskers are coming off their winningest beach season in program history, looking to ride that wave through the offseason. Playing in sand is hard, but it makes you that more grateful when you switch back to teraflex and you’re able to jump 6 inches higher and move twice as fast. The beach game cultivates strong court vision and awareness, in addition to bolstering their volleyball IQ. and training them to make smart decisions. When trying different things, it’s important to prioritize process and progress over results and win-loss tallies. 

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Jaylen Reyes and Kelly Hunter head the beach operation while Head Coach, Dani Busboom-Kelly, works around the clock on the recruiting trail and in other matters of business. The Huskers will have a short stint of home matches in their indoor beach facility, which will be streamed on B1G+– so make sure to tune in if you can! Following that, they will be going on their annual Hawaii trip, and will finish out the season in California. Check out the schedule here; https://huskers.com/sports/beach-volleyball/schedule 

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