Not having any seniors on their 2019 team was nice because it meant Nebraska volleyball would have the same starters in 2020. The bench depth, however, is another story.
Well, transfer season is at its peak right now in college volleyball and the Nebraska Cornhuskers are no strangers to losing talented players to the transfer portal.
The Huskers 2019 season ended a little over a month ago and they’ve already lost four players to the transfer portal. Those four players being (in order of when they announced their transfer): Capri Davis (outside hitter), Anezka Szabo (outside hitter/middle blocker), Chen Abramovich (defensive specialist), and Megan Miller (defensive specialist).
Out of those four, losing Miller is going to be the toughest pill to swallow for this Husker squad, as Miller had logged valuable playing time in her first two years with the program. She played lights out defense throughout the 2018 postseason and it looked like she might win the libero job for the 2019 season.
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Instead – Miller was beat out by freshman Kenzie Knuckles and instead spent her sophomore season as a defensive specialist. The decision for her to transfer isn’t a shocking one considering she could be a starting libero for just about any other team in the country and should make the most of her remaining two years of eligibility.
The Huskers still have depth behind Knuckles this season with 2020 senior Hayley Densberger likely being the one to step into Miller’s spot. Hopefully they look to the transfer portal themselves to find another defensive specialist because even though Densberger is a good player, they’ll need more than just her. Replacing Miller will not be easy.
As for the other three transfers, Davis is another one that will hurt the program. She wasn’t necessarily a starter for this squad, really just coming in when Jazz Sweet was forced to hit from the right side. Even still, Davis was a great piece to this puzzle and the Huskers really started to turn things around in 2018 when she was put into the lineup on a regular basis.
Szabo didn’t play much, occasionally coming in to block on a double substitution. Her departure wasn’t surprising, as she – like Miller and Davis – was talented enough to start for another program.
Abramovich barely played in her two years in Lincoln, so that’s the least hurtful of the four transfers, but she was still a bench player who knew the system and could have gone in if need be.
With these four players departing, it leaves Nebraska with just five bench players from a season ago with three of those actually seeing the court last year (Nicole Drewnick, Riley Zuhn, and Densberger). With three freshmen joining the program next year, it’ll be interesting to see if the 2020 bench provides the same value that the 2019 group did.
Now, the Huskers will look to add some transfers this offseason as well as get their 2020 freshmen acclimated. The starting lineup might look the same in 2020, but the bench players shifting around could be a bigger storyline than we think it’ll be.