The tears streamed down Ally Batenhorst’s face minutes before the No. 20 USC Trojans squared off against her former teammates of the No. 2 Nebraska Huskers on Sunday night at the Devaney Sports Center.

Batenhorst, originally from Omaha and a former Husker, received a thunderous ovation during the starting lineups. As the applause continued, she covered her mouth in disbelief at the heartfelt welcome.

She began fanning the tears when Lexi Rodriguez, Kennedi Orr, and Harper Murray gave Batenhorst their starting lineup ball with handwritten messages from the team.

Several fans waved homemade signs for the outside hitter who transferred to USC for her final collegiate season after graduating from NU in the spring.

“I graduated from here so I’m still always going to be a Husker. It feels like home here and it’s something that’s really special and I just love the people here.”

Batenhorst finished with a match-high 13 kills with a .242 hitting percentage.

“They always say there’s no place like Nebraska. Everyone is just beyond supportive. … You don’t see that at other schools. When I transferred, I was wondering about those things but I never really realized how much support I was actually going to get. It was overwhelming.”

Batenhorst never felt uncomfortable or unwelcome. In fact, when the team’s charter flight landed in town on Saturday, the digital display at Duncan Aviation had a message to welcome Batenhorst back to Lincoln.

USC associate head coach Tyler Hildebrand joined Batenhorst in a return home. The whole match felt “weird” for Husker head coach John Cook but he was glad his team pulled away with another top-25 win.

“First of all, this was kind of a weird match to play with Tyler over there and Ally,” Cook said afterward. “You see how close Ally still is with these guys. I don’t know, it was weird.”

Batenhorst trained with the Huskers all spring despite announcing her intent to transfer to USC before the end of the school year.

That doesn’t happen at most programs, Nebraska is family.

“She’s a Husker,” said Cook. “I think people love watching her play. She did a great job on social media and you can see how tight she still is with our players. There’s an emotional connection there. She trained with us all spring. She’s part of our family. I think our fans know that. … She played great. Good for her.”

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It’s a testament to the Matt Rhule era of Nebraska football that off the field, the program has been relatively drama free. However, bature abhores a vacuum and that might be there has been one soap opera around this team this fall and that’s been the “will he or won’t be” of Micah Mazzccua sticking on the roster for the entire season.

Earlier this weekend, it seemed as if the conclusion was that he was already off the team. There were people seeing him taking a flight going in the opposite direction of the rest of the Huskers. When that’s happening the day before game day, it’s never seen as a good thing.

However, after the Nebraska football team’s 28-10 win over Purdue on Saturday, head coach Matt Rhule said in no uncertain terms that Mazzccua is not off the team. While that was an interesting nugget, it’s likely just going to keep the soap opera going. At least for one more day.

Rhule added he’ll shed more light on the situation during his Monday afternoon press conference. Adding once again he’s not off the team, he also said the transfer offensive lineman is “not with them” right now.

All of this new drama comes a week after things with Mazzccua seemed very fluid. He was ruled out of the Northern Iowa game at the last minute. Then Rhule made it clear he wasn’t hurt.

After that game, he said the former Florida Gator and Baylor Bear would not play against Illinois. Something then changed and he was available but not starting. He was seen warming up against Illinois but didn’t get in the game.

Hopefully, when Monday rolls around, this particular situation will make some more sense and it won’t be the talk of Nebraska football every single week.

In a very tight national election, seemingly, every electoral vote is necessary to secure the win for presidency in November. Perhaps that’s the reason for the Harris campaign to spend amounts of money not seen since Obama’s 2008 campaign in Nebraska’s 2nd congressional district- notably including Omaha.

Kamala Harris and Democratic groups have spent more than $5 million in the district since she entered the race on July 23, and have more than $6 million in ad time reserved through Election Day, Nov. 5, according to the media-tracking firm AdImpact. Former President Donald Trump’s campaign, on the other hand, had spent only about $95,000 on advertising in the state and had reserved roughly $6,800 through Nov. 5.

Trump and Republican allies had sought another route to victory, namely to persuade the Republican-dominated Legislature to make Nebraska a winner-take-all contest instead of awarding its Electoral College votes by congressional district. Maine is the only other state that awards its votes that way. 

Lacking the votes in Nebraska’s unicameral Legislature however, Republican Gov. Jim Pillen said he would not call a special session to attempt the change.

For Nebraska’s 2nd District to break the tie in the race for the winning majority of 270 Electoral College votes, Trump would have to win all Republican-leaning states plus Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina. He would also have to win Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, which he won in 2020, while losing the state overall.