Nebraska Volleyball: What’s next for Huskers after bizarre season

Nebraska volleyball‘s strange “2020” season ended last month and now we look to what the offseason might bring. Due to the season taking place in the spring, the Huskers’ offseason will only last a few months before the team is back on the court again in August.

After losing to Texas in the Elite Eight, the Huskers have a lot of questions to answer this offseason. With the pandemic potentially robbing athletes of a full four years’ worth of eligibility NCAA athletes had an option of returning to school for another year of eligibility. This made things interesting for Nebraska, as they had four seniors this past season, all of whom played a big role on the team since they first joined the program.

As of now, only two have made their decisions. Brent Wagner of the Lincoln Star Journal reported on April 26 that defensive specialist Hayley Densberger and outside hitter Jazz Sweet would not exercise their extra year of eligibility. As of this writing, middle blocker Lauren Stivrins and outside hitter Lexi Sun have not announced what they plan to do.

If Stivrins returns, it’d be her sixth year with the program, as she redshirted in 2016. Sun transferred to Nebraska in the 2018 season after spending her freshman year at Texas (and they’re still mad about her transferring). It’d be great to have them both back in 2021, but being one of the best programs in the nation has its perks and the Huskers will be okay if neither decides to come back.

Nebraska volleyball has a lot to look forward to in 2021.

The Cornhuskers have six incoming freshmen for the 2021 season with five of them landing in the top 16 of this year’s volleyball class and also landing the top three overall recruits, per the Huskers’ official athletics website.

The top overall recruit, Kennedi Orr, is rehabbing from an injury but is going to push junior setter Nicklin Hames at the position once she’s healthy enough to practice and compete. Unless Hames completely falls apart, she’ll be the starting setter in 2021.

If Hames doesn’t use her extra year of eligibility following this season, Orr can be the starter in 2022. She’s the No. 1 recruit for a reason and Nebraska will continue their tradition of having dominant setters when Orr eventually steps into the role.

Lindsay Krause and Ally Batenhorst, the No. 2 and No. 3 recruits, could both see time as starters if Sun doesn’t return this fall. Sophomores Madi Kubik and Riley Zuhn would be the only outside hitters to return to the team in that case and while Kubik is a lock to start, Zuhn needs to prove she can be a consistent difference-maker. Whitney Lauenstein (No. 16 recruit) is also an option here but she’s more than likely going to be a bench player early on.

Lexi Rodriguez, the No. 10 recruit in the country, can be a challenger to sophomore Kenzie Knuckles at libero. Knuckles took over the position as a freshman in 2019, which prompted Megan Miller to transfer to Northwestern.

Rylee Gray (No. 70) will add to the competition at middle blocker but with Stivrins’ future up in the air, Callie Schwarzenbach is probably going to be one of the starters there. Zuhn could also be an option, as she’s someone who can play both middle blocker and outside hitter.

Nebraska is also likely going to have players transfer, as is the case most years. Players are usually okay with being a bench player for their first year and maybe their second year, but with only four years (typically) of eligibility, they want to be starting by their junior year. This could lead to some players who aren’t getting as much playing time as they’d like to enter the transfer portal and this would obviously impact how the roster will look in a little over three months.

Once Stivrins and Sun make their decisions as to whether they’ll be returning or not, the rest of the roster will start falling into place. If neither of them decides to return, the Huskers will be okay and will have the talent to go on a Stanford-like run these next several years.

It’s always awesome to be a Nebraska volleyball fan but it’s going to be a ton of fun these next few years.