This place is different. The spotlight is brighter here. Volleyball Day in Nebraska is the prime example of that. Where else do 92,003 people flock to fill a football stadium for a collegiate volleyball match? Nowhere.

But with the overwhelming amount of love — with the overwhelming level of support — many lurk in the social media shadows of anonymity, spewing whatever they want with absolutely zero accountability.

“One of the cool things about being a Nebraska volleyball player is that attention that comes with it,” coach John Cook says over an emotional instrumental. “But there’s also the downside of that: All the attention that’s negative.”

Infamously, there’s the Harper Murray national championship quip.

The “I think we’re gonna win three national championships the next three years” sentiment.

As someone who sat in the room in Tampa for that moment, I thought nothing of it. As someone who has interviewed her more times than I can count — including for my feature story on her family — I thought nothing of it.

Her mom, Sarah Murray, didn’t think anything of it. To her, it sounded like something Vada Murray, Harper’s father, would say. Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule even mentioned Harper’s comments last winter, saying that he loved what she had to say. 

I mean, what else do you expect Harper to say at that moment, less than 30 minutes after losing on the sport’s biggest stage?

That’s Harper. She’s confident. She believes in herself. She believes in her teammates.

Murray, along with the four other freshmen last season, all believed from the first day of practice last year that they could win a national championship. I wrote about it then, quoting them directly.

Said setter Bergen Reilly, before she won the starting job: “I want to get an offense going that is going to win a national championship.”

Said Murray: “This is what I’ve been training myself for for the past, what, 10 years. So that’s what I expect of myself. I think that’s what the coaches expect of me, and so that’s what I’m going to try to do. That’s my goal: to take us to a national championship.”

But under the bright lights, while her post-loss emotions — anger, namely — were still painfully raw, people took her comments another way. People who don’t know Harper. People who don’t know anything about Harper.

“After the game, making that comment just opened up a whole new world of hate that I never thought I was gonna get,” Murray says in the documentary.

Her comments and her direct message inboxes were a dumpster fire.

Saying she has a “bad attitude.” Saying she’s “such a mean girl.” Saying that her deceased dad “would be disappointed.”

What the heck? All because she believed in herself?

“Some people would tell me that I ruined the sport of volleyball,” Murray said in the E:60. “Some people told me to kill myself.”

The message shown in the documentary pertaining to that said, “Die why don’t u” with four crying laughing emojis.

“If she was a male and she said the exact same thing in that moment, no one would even think twice about it,” assistant coach Jaylen Reyes says in the documentary.

To those who’ve said, “Well, delete your social media.” To those who’ve said, “Well, if you can’t take the heat…”

No. I wholeheartedly disagree. Vehemently disagree, actually.

Why is the onus on Murray here? Why must she have to simply “deal with it?” 

That does not solve the problem. Generations of athletes before didn’t have to “deal with” this.

The problem here isn’t Harper’s comments after the national championship game. The problem here is that keyboard warriors can say whatever the heck they want with no consequences. They just spew their filth into the ether. 

I’m sure there was a legal reason as to why ESPN blurred the usernames of the people sending the hateful comments and abusive direct messages, but I believe that their names should have been public. If you have something to say, you should have to put your name on it. Own your opinions. If you don’t want your name attached to it, then maybe you shouldn’t write it in the first place.

But, of course, it unfortunately doesn’t work that way. But it should. Do you think any of those people would say that drivel to Harper if they had to say it to her face? Doubtful.

It’s unfortunate the documentary had to end with this. But it’s eye-opening.

Words matter. What you say to people? It matters.

As we turn the page to the 2024-25 season, let’s make a conscious effort to be kinder to one another.