Nebraska volleyball season in review: Outside hitter

Husker volleyball finished as the No. 2 ranked team in the AP poll after falling to Wisconsin in the national championship game in five sets. Nebraska was ranked No. 12 at one point in the season and surged toward the end in the NCAA tournament.

In this series, HuskerOnline will break down Nebraska's season by position group based on statistics and national rankings.

The leader:

In Madi Kubik's first season as the No. 1 left side outside, she led the Huskers with 412 kills and 3.49 kills per set. Kubik's kills per set ranked No. 138 in the NCAA in the 2021 season.

Six-year hitter Lexi Sun played inconsistently after the preseason, leaving Kubik as the most experienced outside hitter on the court. Kubik had 22 games with double-digit kills and seven double-doubles.

The West Des Moines native had a .202 hitting percentage on the season and hit .219 during the Big Ten season. During conference play, Kubik ranked No. 3 in the Big Ten with 4.11 average kills per set and No. 5 with 4.59 points per set.

Taking smart shots:

Nebraska's outside hitters hit .187 as a group compared to the team's .222 hitting percentage.

The Huskers ranked No. 13 in the Big Ten in opponent blocks with 2.48 blocks allowed per set. Iowa, who finished second to last in the conference, sat behind Nebraska with 2.51 opponent blocks per set.

Nebraska also ranked No. 12 with an average of 15.59 opponent digs per set in the 2021 season.

These stats tell us that the outside hitters struggled to kill balls effectively. They were blocked or dug more often than most Big Ten teams and more than all of the elite Big Ten teams except Minnesota who ranked last with 16.41 opponent digs per set.

The 2021 season featured some of the best floor defense the Big Ten has seen and that could be reflected in Nebraska's numbers however, each Big Ten team was faced with the same challenge.

A factor of Nebraska's less effective killing was that NU had two freshmen starting and one who played in half of their sets. All three of these freshmen hit hard enough to get balls down but there is also a degree of intelligent floor placement and situational shots. Just like all skills, this develops with experience and that showed during the NCAA tournament.

Nebraska's outside hitters improved at the end of the season and hit .193 in the postseason and .225 when excluding the Wisconsin match.

Big moment for big-time plays:

Nebraska's starting freshmen, Ally Batenhorst on the left and Lindsay Krause on the opposite side, stepped up and dominated in the postseason.

Krause hit .285 during the tournament with 55 kills and 20 errors. Against Wisconsin, she hit .081 with 12 kills and nine errors. Until the national championship, the 6-foot-4 hitter had a .372 hitting percentage in the postseason.

During the tournament, Batenhorst hit .183, an improvement from the .155 clip she had on the season. The 6-foot-4 athlete's hitting percentages fluctuated throughout the entire season but she was more consistent in the postseason.

Both Krause and Batenhorst dominated in Nebraska's four-set victory over Texas in the Regional Finals. Batenhorst had a season-tying 15 kills and hit .406 with two errors. On the opposite side, Krause hit .500 with 13 kills and five blocks.

Krause played on the left side at Omaha Skutt High School and had to adjust to and learn the right side. Batenhorst struggled with consistency but had several good performances throughout the season.

Both hitters were thrown into Big Ten volleyball as freshmen, stepped up in big ways and eventually didn't play like freshmen but played like champions.

Big hit Whit:

Behind Krause on the right side was fellow freshman Whitney Lauenstein, whose nickname is 'big hit Whit'. Lauenstein played often in the preseason when Head Coach John Cook was shuffling players around to find the starting lineup. She started against Creighton and Stanford and then Krause won the starting job in the Big Ten season.

When Krause was struggling, Lauenstein typically provided a boost for the Huskers. The 6-foot-2 hitter occasionally subbed in as a blocking sub for setter Nicklin Hames when setter Anni Evans was serving.

She hit .130 on the season but coming off the bench when your team is struggling is a difficult job. For example, Lauenstein hit -.500 against Minnesota but had two swings, no kills and an error.

Lauenstein said she is still working on adding more types of shots to her toolbelt. On the Up Close podcast, she told HuskerOnline that she takes longer to develop and learn a new skill but she said when she learns the skill, it's locked in.

The 2021 season allowed her to learn new skills, use those new skills in a game and get valuable playing experience.

Incoming outside hitter: Hayden Kubik, the younger sister of Madi, is coming to Nebraska as the No. 18 overall 2022 prospect by PrepVolleyball.com. Hayden, a 6-foot-1 hitter, will bring depth to Nebraska's young outside hitter group.

This article is about how the Huskers performed by position in 2021, HuskerOnline will break down each position group for the 2022 season closer to the start of the season.