Virginia Adriano was playing volleyball in Italy’s top pro league. Then Nebraska came calling

LINCOLN, Neb. — On the morning of Jan. 30, as John Cook readied for his retirement news conference, some 16 hours after he stepped down from the helm of Nebraska volleyball, Cook’s successor, Dani Busboom Kelly, met briefly with Jaylen Reyes, the Huskers’ seven-year assistant and lead recruiter.

Busboom Kelly had already pledged to keep Cook’s staff intact. Her public introduction at Nebraska was still a week away. But she slipped into Lincoln on that Thursday to handle paperwork and meet with Nebraska players before returning to Louisville, where she’d coached for eight seasons.

Busboom Kelly had a few questions for Reyes, then she asked if he needed anything from her amid this hectic transition.

“I got out my computer,” Reyes said, “and I told her, ‘As of right now, I’m planning to go to Italy next week to see this player.’ And I showed her three swings.”

Among Busboom Kelly’s first decisions in her first full day as the coach at her alma mater, she green-lit Reyes’ travel and the Huskers’ pursuit of 6-foot-5 pro Virginia Adriano.

Six months and three weeks later, in the first regular-season match at Nebraska for Busboom Kelly and Adriano, the 21-year-old Italian delivered a momentum-turning block against Pitt’s Olivia Babcock, the reigning National Player of the Year.

A crowd of 15,576 at Nebraska’s Pinnacle Bank Arena roared its approval late in the four-set win for the Huskers. It served as a welcoming moment for Adriano.

Virginia Adriano breaks down her clutch block on 2024 Player of the Year Olivia Babcock 💪#AVCAFirstServe pic.twitter.com/9HmIH7XeKb

— Big Ten Volleyball (@B1GVolleyball) August 23, 2025

She’s a hit for undefeated Nebraska, the five-time national champion and No. 1 team this year through six weeks of the season.

Adriano played last year for Bergamo in Italy’s Serie 1A, one of the top professional leagues in the world. She represents an emerging category of elite athletes set to consider collegiate opportunities after the approval this year of a settlement in U.S. District Court that allows athletic departments to share revenue with student-athletes.

Relaxed rules have allowed international athletes at the professional level to take a college detour not typically available until recent years.

Adriano was granted three years of eligibility by the NCAA. The chance to study and earn a college degree attracted her to playing in the United States, she said. The monetary incentives also aided in the decision to move her career across the Atlantic Ocean.

“I will be very honest,” Adriano said, ”before all of this happened, I knew college volleyball existed. But I never actually knew a lot about it.”

She learned fast while adjusting to life in a new country. Adriano’s 2.2 kills and 1.2 blocks per set rank fourth among the regular starters in a balanced Nebraska lineup built to contend for a national championship. The Huskers’ passionate fan base expects nothing less this year, and Adriano adds firepower on the right pin to complement four returning All-Americans.

“She’s blowing it out of the water,” junior middle blocker Andi Jackson said.

Nebraska has notched five of its 12 wins against ranked opponents. But nothing to date has carried more meaning for the Huskers than what arrives Friday as they visit 16th-ranked Penn State.

Fox will provide national TV coverage at 8 p.m. ET. The Nittany Lions handed Nebraska two of its three losses a year ago — in November to deny the Huskers an outright Big Ten championship and three weeks later in the Final Four.

Penn State won the last three of five sets in that national semifinal to end Nebraska’s season and Cook’s storied coaching career. The Nittany Lions then beat Louisville and Busboom Kelly for a second time in 2024 to secure the national championship.

“We’re pretty motivated,” Busboom Kelly said.

Around the time of those two Nebraska losses last year against Penn State, Cook heard from a connection in American pro volleyball about a tall Italian who might be interested in playing collegiately.

Reyes, through his extensive recruiting network, gathered the same information separately.

Nebraska was losing two-time All-American Merritt Beason at opposite hitter, Adriano’s position. The Huskers signed a freshman, Ryan Hunter, who was rehabbing from knee surgery, and added transfer Allie Sczech from Baylor.

But Reyes couldn’t turn away from the intrigue of this prospect. He collected video and evaluated her accomplishments. Adriano played for her country’s under-23 squad, which won gold at the European Championships in 2024, and for the U21 team that finished second at the World Championships in 2023.

Italy won the world championship last month. It won Olympic gold in Paris last year. Adriano aims to make an Olympic squad. The next opportunity, the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, comes one year after her eligibility at Nebraska expires.

Reyes worked through Adriano’s agent and planned the trip to Milan for February. There, he traveled to Bergamo and met Adriano. She knew English well, having studied the language since her first year of elementary school. But she had never visited the United States.

She noticed publicity two years ago around Nebraska’s record-setting match at Memorial Stadium, which drew 92,000 fans. Otherwise, Adriano was in the dark about the Huskers.

“I was very unsure of what I wanted to do,” Adriano said.

Reyes watched her practice.

“We were all in, trying to get her,” he said. “And I didn’t feel like we were recruiting her against other schools. It didn’t even feel like we were against other pro teams. Because I feel like, after we met, she really wanted to do it.”

Reyes talked her through concerns about the impact on her future in the sport if she chose the American path. The collegiate pace of play differs considerably from the game she played in Italy.

The U.S. experience, Adriano decided in the end, could only help with her development.

Adriano met Busboom Kelly on Zoom. The young Italian turned for advice to Bergamo teammate Ashley Evans, a former Purdue setter and veteran of Team USA. Nebraska was recruiting her, Adriano told Evans.

“It’s a big deal,” Adriano said, recalling Evans’ words from their conversation. “Just go. There’s nothing better than that.”

With the eligibility piece settled in the spring, her decision was made.

Forza Grande Rosso 🗣️🇮🇹🔴

Virginia Adriano is officially a Husker!

✍️ https://t.co/yzb6ontBD2 | #GBR pic.twitter.com/bqvmysJFC8

— Nebraska Volleyball (@HuskerVB) May 16, 2025

The image in her mind of the United States featured the high fashion and skyscrapers of New York. So what did Adriano think of Lincoln, Neb.?

“I would have to say there is not a lot to do,” she said. “Not that I have the time.”

Adriano enjoys the pace of life, she said. She learned immediately that her teammates spoke too fast for her to understand parts of their conversations. The food required an adjustment.

She wakes up much earlier and eats meals at times that feel unusual. The Huskers were heavy into an offseason cycle of lifting weights when Adriano arrived four months ago.

“It wasn’t easy,” Jackson said. “I felt for her. I’ve never been in that situation. I didn’t want her to feel not included.”

Over the Fourth of July, Jackson and her family hosted Adriano in Colorado. They toured Boulder and visited a reservoir in eastern Colorado. The mountains reminded Adriano of Europe.

Jackson’s father, Dennis, helped Adriano find a car to purchase in Lincoln. She did not drive in Italy. In Lincoln, before obtaining a driver’s license, Adriano used a bike she borrowed from Cook and often rode it 10 minutes to campus.

“She’s adjusted so well,” Jackson said. “I’m really proud of how far she’s come.”

On the court, Adriano was impatient. She displayed the power immediately that served her well in international competition.

“I want to swing hard,” she said.

But Adriano’s efficiency did not meet her standard early in this first season.

“The main thing for Virginia is feeling that the team and the coaches have confidence in her,” Busboom Kelly said. “Can we set her in big moments?”

It’s started to happen. Adriano helped key a reverse sweep for Nebraska by coming off the bench after two sets against No. 7 Kentucky on Aug. 31.

Her four most productive matches came in Nebraska’s last five times on the court.

V, that ball had a family! 🫣🏐 pic.twitter.com/8Y7qvMyKOJ

— Nebraska Volleyball (@HuskerVB) September 25, 2025

She produced seven kills on seven swings in the third set of the Huskers’ marathon win against Creighton on Sept. 16. They played before a crowd of 17,675 in Omaha, the largest ever for a regular-season indoor match.

Adriano did not play in comparable environments before this season. The big matches excite her.

“It wasn’t even the amount of people who were there,” she said. “It was everything — the environment, the media, the lights, the pathos in those moments, it was huge.”

Pathos, in Italian, alludes to emotional energy. Friday night, such an intensity follows Nebraska to Penn State’s Rec Hall. Adriano recognizes early into her experience with the Huskers that the pathos is part of what attracted her to Nebraska.

“The fact that we have this attention for a reason, it matters,” she said. “It’s a great, amazing program with a great team, great people working here, and we are playing good volleyball. That’s what brought me to make this decision.”

(Top photo: Courtesy of Nebraska athletics)