Ex- O’Gorman star Bergen Reilly returns to Sioux Falls with Nebraska volleyball

Nebraska volleyball will be playing a spring game at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 11, at the Sanford Pentagon in what will be a homecoming for the Cornhuskers’ All-American setter.

Bergen Reilly, a three-time South Dakota Gatorade Player of the Year while at O’Gorman, is a senior on Nebraska’s team. She has become a three-time All-American, three-time Big Ten Setter of the Year, a two-time First Team Academic All-American and the 2025 Big Ten Player of the Year.

Saturday’s spring game will represent her first game in South Dakota donning the red and white, and she isn’t quite sure how she’s going to feel stepping on the Pentagon court again for the first time in years.

“It kind of feels just like a full-circle moment getting to start off my senior year here,” Reilly said. “It’s the first spring game of my senior year, so it’ll be really cool to get to go home and have so many friends and family at the game and get to play at an arena I’ve played at a lot.”

Tickets for the event were sold out within minutes, meaning some of Reilly’s friends were unable to get them initially. The Sioux Falls native said she took all the extra tickets on the pass list, her parents have a 50-person suite and over 100 people have contacted her saying they’re going.

Nebraska volleyball is one of the biggest brands in the sport, and big crowds tend to follow. Bringing that fanfare to South Dakota is a point of pride for the former O’Gorman star.

“Everywhere we go, it’s always such a great atmosphere and most of the time the crowd’s cheering for us regardless of how far we are from Nebraska,” Reilly said. “It feels like Nebraska fans just spawn out of nowhere, but it’s been really cool to just see. Whether it’s Washington and Oregon or Rutgers, there’s people waiting outside of our bus after the game and getting to see that environment in South Dakota is going to be really special.”

That pomp and circumstance comes as volleyball has boomed as a spectator sport. The 2025 Nebraska-Texas A&M regional final averaged 1.2 million viewers on TV and peaked at 1.6 million, according to ESPN. Both are NCAA regional records.

That rise has been evident in South Dakota, with Harrisburg’s program rising to a nationally-relevant level after finishing the 2025 season at No. 8 in the AVCA/USA TODAY Super 15 poll.

“I could never imagine that volleyball would be where it is when I started volleyball and even just in middle school, like no one would have ever imagined that we sold out a football stadium and are traveling coast to coast and selling out, so it’s really cool that I could be a little part of that and I’m really happy that it’s it’s definitely getting there in South Dakota too,” Reilly said.

Reilly has become a star both in Sioux Falls and Lincoln due to her success on the court. Lots of young players look up to her, and that has led to some major buzz for her return to the Sioux Empire.

“I don’t even know if I necessarily have to handle it because for me it still feels not real that people are excited to see me or want to take a picture or want my autograph,” Reilly said. “It just feels like I’m still a high school girl that’s playing volleyball just because she loves it, so it’s really awesome that volleyball has given me these opportunities because it really is just me playing the sport that I love with some of my best friends.”

Adding to the nostalgia of the homecoming is the location. Reilly has won many tournaments, in both volleyball and basketball, on the courts at the Sanford Pentagon. She hasn’t really considered what the emotions will be like on the court early on in the game, even though it doesn’t officially count.

“I don’t know what’s going to be going through my head,” Reilly said. “I don’t know if it really feels real that I’m playing in Sioux Falls so I think that’ll take a second to sink in and I’m sure some memories will come flooding back from playing on the Pentagon floor for club tournaments and for high school volleyball and high school basketball, so I’m sure there’ll be a lot going on in my head.”

Reilly and the Cornhuskers will venture back to South Dakota for a regular-season game at South Dakota State on Wednesday, Sept. 2, in Brookings.