Taylor Landfair transfers to Nebraska after leaving Gophers volleyball team

In what is becoming an unwelcome holiday tradition, one of the Gophers' top volleyball players became a transfer portal present for a Big Ten rival.

Taylor Landfair announced Monday she is transferring to Nebraska. She joins a team that lost one regular-season match last season and was the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament before being surprisingly swept by Texas in the national championship.

Landfair spent four years with the Gophers and was named first team all-conference three times and Big Ten Player of the Year in 2022.

She will have two seasons of eligibility remaining with the Cornhuskers after redshirting because of injury as a sophomore and gaining an extra year because of COVID-19. She entered the transfer portal after playing three seasons for Hugh McCutcheon and one season for Keegan Cook at Minnesota.

Cook said last season that after he was named Gophers coach his first player visit was to go see Landfair at home in Illinois to try and keep her with the program after McCutcheon's departure.

Landfair alluded to that meeting on Monday, writing in an Instagram story about why she decided to leave a year later.

"I stayed at Minnesota through a multitude of changes and I had high hopes that from one in-person meeting last December of 2022, remaining a Gopher would work out and I would end up finishing my college career in Gold and Maroon.

"However, in the last week before Christmas break I had to take a hard look at my goals and whether the direction of the program is in line with what I am seeking to complete in my last 2 years of eligibility. ... The answer for my decision to leave Minnesota is simple; it is no longer the right fit for me."

Now Landfair will play for John Cook, who has built a dynasty with four national titles over 24 seasons at Nebraska. His team is the showcase of college volleyball, an arena packing, TV ratings behemoth that set the record for attendance at a women's sporting event this year when 92,003 fans watched it play Nebraska Omaha at Memorial Stadium.

Reports said Landfair's decision came down to Nebraska and Wisconsin. Last year it was the Badgers that grabbed a crucial Minnesota transfer on Christmas Eve when Carter Booth joined Kelly Sheffield's team.

Cook has long set himself as the antithesis to Sheffield, who has built a juggernaut through the transfer portal, by pointing out his more traditional approach to program building at Nebraska.

That distinction is no longer applicable. The Cornhuskers may have had a bevy of freshman stars this season, but they wouldn't have been anywhere without junior Merritt Beason, who was named first-team All-America after transferring from Florida. Now they add Landfair and firmly join the transfer arms race.

And the Gophers? They are once again left on the other side of that equation with roster spots to fill and old acquaintances to try and forget as a new year gets underway.