Nebraska Volleyball's Harper Murray pens heartfelt note as Team USA player receives major honor for the second time

Harper Murray recently showed her love and admiration for Olivia Babcock as the latter received the Division 1 AVCA Player of the Year Award. Babcock showed a remarkable performance, recording 538 kills throughout her Sophomore year.

She also set the Pittsburgh Panthers program record with 12 aces in a single match against Boston College. The right-side hitter earned multiple honors this season, including the ACC Player of the Year, AVCA East Coast Region Player of the Year, AVCA First Team All-American, and Pittsburgh NCAA Regional Most Valuable Player. She also earned the same honor last year by playing in all 34 matches and posting a career-high 23 kills and 12 digs.

During her freshman year, Babcock won AVCA National Freshman of the Year (Program's first) and AVCA East Coast Region Freshman of the Year. She earned the AVCA Player of the Year Award in the last season. Babcock garnered praise from Murray for winning her second AVC Award. Murray, who was present at the award ceremony, shared a video of Babcock receiving the honor and wrote:

"You have the kindest soul. I'm honored and grateful that I've been able to watch you accomplish what you have and continue to chase your dreams. You deserve and have earned everything that has come your way. I love you, thank you for being my long-distance bff. See you in August."

Screenshot of Harper Murray's Instagram story.

Babcock has represented the American team multiple times and won a gold medal at the 2023 Girls U19 Pan American Cup. She also bagged a silver medal at the NORCECA Women's Pan American Cup Final Six last year.

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Nebraska Volleyball's Harper Murray voices her opinion on being coached by women

Harper Murray recently made her feelings known about being trained by a coaching staff consisting of women, including Dani Bushboom Kelly and Jaylen Reyes. Coach Bushboom Kelly replaced Coach John Cook at the Huskers program earlier this year after guiding the Louisville Cardinals for eight years.

"Just embracing it is probably the most important thing for us because we're so lucky to have Jaylen and Kelly and everybody else on our staff. So I think just really embracing the change but also looking forward to it because it's awesome that Nebraska volleyball is going to be coached by women now," Harper Murray said. (8:55 onwards) "I don't think that that's something a lot of us really thought would happen for a while, just coach has been here for so long and he's a legend but now having a woman being able to take over his legacy is amazing."

The Nebraska Volleyball team will commence its season on August 9, 2025.

Edited by Anisha Chatterjee