Dani Busboom Kelly

Coaching Honors and Awards
• AVCA National Coach of the Year (2021)
• VolleyballMag.com National Coach of the Year (2021)
• AVCA Region Coach of the Year (2017, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2025)
• Big Ten Coach of the Year (2025)
• ACC Coach of the Year (2020, 2021, 2022)
• USA Collegiate National Team Head Coach - Europe Global Challenge Gold Medal (2018)
• AVCA National Assistant Coach of the Year (2016)
• AVCA Thirty Under 30 Award (2014)

Career Numbers
• 2 NCAA Final Appearances
• 3 NCAA Semifinals Appearances
• 6 NCAA Regional Finals Appearances (1 at Nebraska)
• 7 NCAA Regional Semifinals Appearances (1 at Nebraska)
• 5 Conference Titles (1 at Nebraska)
• 17 AVCA All-Americans (4 at Nebraska)
• 2 Academic All-Americans
• 46 All-Conference Selections (6 at Nebraska) 

Dani Busboom Kelly enters her second season as Nebraska volleyball's head coach in 2026.

The Nebraska native led the Huskers to a record-setting 2025 season, her first year coaching her alma mater. Busboom Kelly was named the AVCA West Region Coach of the Year and Big Ten Coach of the Year after guiding the Huskers to a perfect 30-0 regular season and 20-0 mark in Big Ten play, the second time in her career she's coached a team to an unbeaten regular season. NU finished the year 33-1 after a five-set loss to eventual national champion Texas A&M in the NCAA Regional Final. 

The Huskers finished the regular season unbeaten for the third time in school history (1994 and 2000) and won 33 matches in a row, the second-longest win streak in school history in the NCAA era. The Huskers completed their first unbeaten conference season since 2004 in the Big 12, and Busboom Kelly became the first volleyball coach in Big Ten history to win the conference title in their first year as head coach at the school. 

Nebraska set a school record for hitting percentage in a season at .351, which led the nation. The Huskers' .129 opponent hitting percentage also led the nation. Four Huskers were named AVCA All-Americans, and setter Bergen Reilly was named Big Ten Player of the Year, Big Ten Setter of the Year, AVCA Region Player of the Year and was a finalist for AVCA National Player of the Year.

Busboom Kelly was named the fourth head coach in program history on Jan. 29, 2025. She succeeded her former coach and mentor, John Cook, who announced his retirement following the 2024 season after 25 years as Nebraska’s head volleyball coach. 

A Husker national champion player and assistant coach, Busboom Kelly spent 2017-24 building Louisville into a national power. The Cardinals reached two NCAA Championship matches, three NCAA Semifinals, five NCAA Regional Finals and won four ACC titles. 

Busboom Kelly compiled a 203-44 (.822) record in her eight seasons at Louisville, including a 120-15 (.889) mark from 2021-24, which was the second-best winning percentage in the country during that span. In her final year in 2024, the Cardinals reached the NCAA Championship match for the second time in three seasons under Busboom Kelly. 

Busboom Kelly was the starting libero on Nebraska’s 2006 national championship team, and she was an assistant coach when the Huskers won the 2015 national championship in Omaha. She took the helm at Louisville late in 2016 after being named AVCA National Assistant Coach of the Year in her final season as a Husker assistant, and she guided the Cardinals to heights the program had never experienced.  

In her first season at Louisville in 2017, Busboom Kelly took over a program coming off a 12-18 season and led UofL to a 24-7 record, an ACC title and an NCAA Tournament appearance. Picked eighth in the ACC preseason poll, she coached two players to major conference postseason awards, ACC Setter of the Year (Wilma Rivera) and ACC Defensive Player of the Year (Molly Sauer). For her efforts, she was named the AVCA East Region Coach of the Year for the first of four times at Louisville. Following her first season, Busboom Kelly was named the head coach of the U.S. Collegiate National Team Europe Tour, leading them to the gold medal in the European Global Challenge. 

The Cardinals continued to improve each season, reaching the NCAA Tournament Second Round in 2018 and the program’s first-ever NCAA Regional Final in 2019. During the shortened 2020-21 season, Busboom Kelly’s Cardinals went 15-3 and won the ACC Championship, and she was named ACC Coach of the Year. 

Louisville broke through in a big way in 2021, winning 32 straight matches to begin the season before finishing the year in the NCAA Semifinals for the first time in program history. Busboom Kelly was again named ACC Coach of the Year as well as AVCA National Coach of the Year, as the Cardinals achieved their first No. 1 ranking in program history. She became the first woman in NCAA history to coach an undefeated regular season, and two Louisville players (Tori Dilfer and Anna Stevenson) earned the program’s first-ever AVCA All-America First Team honors. 

The Cardinals finished 31-3 in 2022 and reached the NCAA Final for the first time in school history, falling to top-seeded Texas. Busboom Kelly was the ACC Coach of the Year for the third year in a row, as the Cardinals won their third straight ACC title. Claire Chaussee was voted ACC Player of the Year, and Amaya Tillman won the NCAA Elite 90 Award for having the best cumulative GPA at the NCAA Championship. 

After going 27-5 in 2023 with another regional final appearance and another ACC Player of the Year honor (Anna DeBeer), the Cardinals began the 2024 season with pressure to get back to the NCAA Semifinals, which were being played at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville. Not only did the Cardinals qualify for the NCAA Semifinals in their own city, they also impressively turned aside top-seeded Pittsburgh, 3-1, despite losing their top hitter DeBeer for the tournament early in set four.  

Prior to her time at Louisville, Busboom Kelly played a vital role on the Husker coaching staff, assisting with Nebraska's setters, liberos, outside hitters and recruiting. Regarded as one of the best recruiters in the nation, Busboom Kelly helped Nebraska's resurgence to the forefront of college volleyball, as the Huskers captured the 2015 NCAA Championship at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, the same place Busboom Kelly won the national title as a player for the Huskers in 2006.

Behind Busboom Kelly’s recruiting efforts, the Huskers' 2013 signing class was ranked No. 1 in the nation by PrepVolleyball.com, and the 2015 class was also a top-five class. From that group Mikaela Foecke went on to become the third freshman to be named Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Championship.

Busboom Kelly helped the Huskers to a 134-30 record and NCAA Regional Final appearances in all five seasons. Before joining the Husker staff in 2012, she was an assistant coach at Tennessee from 2009-10, and an assistant coach at Louisville in 2011. 

As a captain at Nebraska, Busboom moved from setter to libero in 2006 to help Nebraska’s defense and finished her career as one of only two players to rank among NU’s all-time leaders in both digs (1,281) and assists (2,873). She was a four-year starter for Cook, guiding NU to a 124-10 record, three Big 12 titles, two NCAA Final appearances and a national title in 2006.

Busboom was considered the Big 12’s best libero in 2006, as she helped NU limit opponents to a Big 12-low .144 hitting percentage. She set Nebraska’s single-season digs record (580) in her first year as a libero. She notched her best defensive performance in the NCAA Semifinals against UCLA, totaling a career-high 29 digs, which ranks as the second-best postseason performance in school history.

In addition to her accomplishments on the court, Busboom excelled off the court for the Huskers. She was a 2006 second-team Academic All-District VII selection, while earning six Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll accolades and becoming a three-time first-team Academic All-Big 12 honoree. She earned a bachelor’s degree in communication studies from Nebraska in 2007.

Following her graduation, Busboom spent time with the U.S. Women’s National Training Team before working as a sales representative for an Omaha insurance company. She also worked as a sideline reporter for radio broadcasts of Nebraska volleyball matches on the Husker Sports Network and was an assistant coach with USA Volleyball’s Select A2 Program.

Dani and her husband, former Nebraska football player Lane Kelly, were married in the summer of 2010 and have two sons, Boone and Jett. 

Dani Busboom Kelly Year-by-Year Record

Year	Overall	Pct.	Conf. Record	Conf. Place	Postseason Finish	Final Rank
2017 (Louisville)	24-7	.774	18-2	t1st	NCAA First Round	NR
2018 (Louisville)	22-9	.710	14-4	t3rd	NCAA Second Round	NR
2019 (Louisville)	22-10	.688	12-6	t3rd	NCAA Regional Finals	14
2020 (Louisville)	15-3	.833	12-2	1st	NCAA Regional Semifinals	11
2021 (Louisville)	32-1	.970	18-0	1st	NCAA Semifinals	3
2022 (Louisville)	31-3	.912	17-1	t1st	NCAA Runner-Up	2
2023 (Louisville)	27-5	.844	15-3	3rd	NCAA Regional Finals	6
2024 (Louisville)	30-6	.833	17-3	t2nd	NCAA Runner-Up	2
2025 (Nebraska)	33-1	.971	20-0	1st	NCAA Regional Finals	3
Totals	236-45	.840	145-21