Nebraska Volleyball position competition will make for a better team

Starting Monday, Nebraska volleyball will be enduring its hardest-fought competition within the program, the competition for a starting role.

With the No. 1 2021 recruiting class not only in the country but in Nebraska athletic’s history, every player, including the veterans, will have to earn their spots.

Six-year senior Lexi Sun is returning for her fourth season as one of Nebraska’s go-to outside hitters. However this season, she will have to battle for the starting role against freshman Lindsay Krause and Whitney Lauenstein.

“I've never really been in this position before. I've always been a left-side hitter,” Sun said. “I'm excited to get to try it and experience it and learn new things and be put into an uncomfortable position.”

Krause is the 2021 Nebraska Gatorade Player of the Year and was ranked the No. 2 overall prospect in the 2021 class by PrepVolleyball.com. She said she is excited for the competition that will begin on Monday during the team’s first practice.

“It's really cool to have those players here that have been here and have that experience to come in and learn from them,” Krause said. “And then also not shy away from the challenge, like be able to come in and try to compete with them, but they're super big role models, and I respect them a lot.”

The competition will be tight with this much talent at one position. Head coach John Cook said he plans on switching up the lineup and trying to find the best combination of players.

“(Competition) brings out the best in everybody,” Cook said. “They're gonna have to come in and perform. You can't come in and take a day off cruise through practice, take a play off, and we had way too much of that last year.

“We've got competition at all the positions and I think it's gonna force them to have to perform.”

With the hype surrounding a very accomplished freshman group, Cook has had several conversations with his players about the pressure that has been placed on them and how to fight past that.

“I've already had that conversation with all the freshmen and try to get them to understand that they'll be looked at a little bit differently, and especially the in-state ones, and I think they're a really mature group,” Cook said. “I'm pretty confident that those guys will be able to handle everything that's coming their way.”

Senior Setter Nicklin Hames also had advice for the freshman.

“I would say just to keep their confidence,” Hames said. There's a lot of expectations coming into this program, especially when you're ranked really high just to keep your confidence no matter what.”

“Really learn to separate your identity from you as a volleyball player to you as a person because when you separate it, it's really easy to have that confidence.”

Hames also said that her team wasn’t playing up to the Nebraska volleyball standard last season.

“As a team, we knew what we could accomplish last year,” Sun agreed. “I think that we didn't really ever get to that point. And we weren't able to show everyone that side of us. And I think that this is just another year and another opportunity to be able to show what we have.”

The competition that the newcomers will bring will force the Huskers to elevate their individual games.

“Not only will the upperclassmen be pushing the freshmen but the freshmen will also be pushing us to get better,” Sun said. “I think that's going to be really awesome about this team this year is we're going to be able to get to that potential because we will be competing every single day in the gym.”