Nebraska Volleyball position breakdown: Outside Hitters

Nebraska volleyball’s season is fast approaching. With six talented freshmen and several players who left the Huskers program, it’s a great time to review NU’s weapons at each position and what each player’s skill set will bring to the program.

Head coach John Cook said the competition has been very intense but healthy on the court. He said he is planning to mix and match his lineup to find the best combination of athletes. So no position is safe.

Onto the front row and to where the most intense battles are, the two outside hitter positions are between all five outside hitters on the team, including two veterans and three freshmen.

Last season, Lexi Sun and Madi Kubik were on the left side and Jazz Sweet and Riley Zuhn manned the opposite. Sweet has since graduated and Zuhn medially retired, so the opposite side will look completely different.

Sun is going to be the obvious choice on the left side for Husker fans. She has started all three of her seasons at Nebraska on the left side while hitting .237. Sun will earn her 1,000th career kill this season and is currently sitting at 992 kills.

Cook said Sun has been practicing at opposite/right-side hitter position. He said it’s not a matter of if she can hit on the right side, she’s a great hitter everywhere. It’s a matter if she can block and play defense on that side.

During the Red/White Scrimmage, Sun was competing for the left side.

Kubik also brings a lot of experience on the left side. She was named the 2019 Big Ten Volleyball Freshman of the Year and contributed the third most kills during the 2020 season.

For the opposite hitter, Sweet left Nebraska with 970 career kills and four years of experience. Zuhn beat Sweet, a senior, out for the starting right-side hitter position to begin the season. Because of Zuhn’s injuries, Sweet started the final seven matches of the season.

The absence of an experienced opposite hitter would worry any typical team but Nebraska has two freshmen opposite hitters that might even improve the position’s production.

Sun, Kubik and freshman Ally Batenhorst are competing for left-side hitter based on the scrimmage.

Batenhorst said after the scrimmage that she was nervous beforehand but settled in nicely. While battling those nerves in the first set, the 2021 Gatorade National Volleyball Player of the Year hit .300 with eight kills and two errors.

Sun and Kubik both have extensive experience on the left side.

But Batenhorst, the No. 3 overall prospect in the 2021 class according to PrepVolleyball.com, is not going down without a fight.

On the opposite side, along with Sun, are freshmen Lindsay Krause from Omaha Skutt and Whitney Lauenstein from Waverly. Both will force Sun to bring her ‘A’ game every single play.

Krause is the freshman that has impressed senior setter Nicklin Hames the most and the four-time Class B state champion showed why on Saturday. She had 12 kills but nine errors bringing her hitting percentage to .071. However, Krause has a big swing and nerves could have been a factor for the freshman.

As for Lauenstein, she has serious power in her arm and earned 14 kills on Saturday. The No. 16 overall 2021 prospect by PrepVolleyball.com smoked Kubik on the other side of the court to help the White team win set three.

Cook has a lot of talent at outside hitter and by the looks of it, he might be losing sleep over who will be the starters come the Huskers’ first game on Thursday.

If Cook can’t name a starting lineup due to the close competition, this journalist isn’t going to attempt to do a job that a five-time national champion can’t do.

However, just like he did at the scrimmage, I expect Cook to mix and match his outside hitters to find the perfect combination. NU’s first two games on Thursday are Tulsa and Colgate and I expect to see different lineups for each game.

For a look at the hitter combinations from the scrimmage, check out my 3 Takes on Nebraska Volleyball Red/White scrimmage.