The Nebraska Huskers had a brilliant 2024 NCAA season, to say the least. Posting a 33-3 overall record, John Cook’s girls went on to share the Big Ten title with Penn State and finished the national campaign in the NCAA semifinals, where they lost to the Nittany Lions. However, those three losses also might not have happened had Harper Murray taken greater care of her pre-match drink.

The 6’2″ opposite hitter led the team in kills with 3.40 per set in 2024. Safe to say, Murray was a driving force behind the Huskers’ sensational run last year. In the matches Nebraska lost, too, her skills on the court couldn’t be kept under the rug. But it wasn’t that she left anything on the court, but instead it was probably Harper’s off-court clumsiness that brought about the defeats.

In a post by the official Big Ten handle on X from July 29, Murray revealed what is a tradition she resolutely maintains ahead of every volleyball match she plays. During a rapid-fire round at the Big Ten Media Day backstage, the Huskers star was asked what her weirdest superstition is. In response, Murray said, “I get matcha before every volleyball game, and if I don’t spill it, we usually lose.”

The person behind the camera, like everyone who watched the clip, justifiably thought they had misheard the Nebraska star. Confused, the reporter asked again in a surprised tone, “If you don’t spill it?” Smiling, Murray explained, “Yeah, last year the three games that we lost, I didn’t spill it,” recalling how SMU and Penn State got the better of the Huskers simply because she wasn’t careful enough to spill some of her matcha drink before hitting the court.

Pretty humble of her to claim that it was the unspilled drink that caused the Huskers to lose the matches. Because, without a shred of a doubt, it wasn’t like Murray didn’t try her best to help the team win. Along with posting a team-high of 39 service aces, Harper also contributed 2.43 digs per set and finished the season with nine double-doubles, and even recorded a career-high 22 kills with a season-high of 16 digs against Dayton in the 2024 NCAA regional semifinal.

Surely, Murray’s superstition is just that. Because as far as the fans are concerned, the Nebraska star loves to take responsibility. Her flamboyant claim that the Huskers would go on to three straight national titles after the 2023 NCAA heartbreak would prove our point. Or maybe it’s a new form of the store we haven’t known before that’s coming out under the new management.

Can the new season help Harpe Murray find a new tradition?

Right after the 2024 campaign came to an unexpected end, the Huskers camp suffered another blow to the gut. After 25 years of leading Nebraska’s volleyball program, John Cook announced in January that he would step down from his position and hand over the reins to Dani Busboom Kelly, the former Louisville head coach and a Nebraska alum who also played and won the NCAA title under Coach Cook in 2006. Murray was devastated to see the person who helped her both on and off the court depart.

But DBK wasn’t underqualified to take over, either. Under her guidance, the Cardinals have made it to the national championship match twice in the last three years, cementing her legacy as a skilled volleyball coach. Murray was willing to get to work with her new boss, despite acknowledging that things were vastly different under Kelly than what they used to be with Cook.

But can the new regime also prompt Murray to find a new superstition to bank on to help the Huskers win the NCAA title this time around? Or will the OH still need to depend on her spilled drink to do so? Can the new coach help her star player put more faith in her own abilities rather than levying so much importance on the prediction made by the matcha drink in her hand? What do you reckon?