Nebraska Volleyball position breakdown: Server

Nebraska volleyball’s season is fast approaching. With six talented freshmen and several players leaving 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 high but also healthy on the court. He also is planning to mix and match his lineup to find the best combination of athletes.

To begin this series, we will look at Nebraska’s serving situation at the beginning of the rotation on a volleyball court.

Outside hitter Lexi Sun had the most aces last season and is returning for her fourth year as a major contributor at Nebraska. Because she takes risks behind the serves line, Sun also has the most errors.

Sun is the most experience server on Nebraska’s squad and serving a skill that gets better with time and practice. With another off-season of serving practice, she will likely continue to be one of the Huskers’ best servers.

Defensive specialist Keonilei Akana took on a huge serving role as a freshman and had the second most aces. But again, with high-risk serves that are capable of not getting returned in a very talented Big Ten, it is more likely to have errors. Akana had the second most last season.

Setter Nicklin Hames and defensive specialist Kenzie Knuckles contributed 16 and 17 aces respectively. However, Knuckles had significantly fewer service errors than Hames.

The biggest change for the Huskers returning servers is Hayley Densberger, who decided not to return for another senior season.

Cook called Densberger his secret weapon behind the service line. She had eight aces and 15 service errors in the 53 sets she played in.

Densberger is the only serving weapon Nebraska lost and the returners are a strong-looking group.

Cook said on Wednesday that the freshmen have been making a lot of errors during practice but “they’re going for it.”

“We want them to be aggressive right now and then continue to refine the errors,” he said. “It’s typically for this time of year. The best six servers play.”

Because of the learning curve entering Big Ten volleyball, freshmen may not be in that top six to begin the season but could breakthrough in the middle or later on.

Freshman defensive specialist Lexi Rodriguez earned 120 aces in her three years at Sterling high school, including a whopping 58 aces as a freshman.

Setter Kennedi Orr contributed 32 aces during her junior season. On the 2019 U.S.A. 18U National team in Egypt, Orr tied for the team’s best server with 12 aces and 0.41 per set.

Both Rodriguez and Orr didn’t play their senior seasons in high school. Rodriguez’s season was canceled due to COVID-19 and Orr was injured.

Because both student-athletes missed their high school volleyball seasons and Orr hasn’t played in a game since 2019 it will be interesting to see how their serving has developed.

Orr has been participating in 90 percent of practice, according to Cook on Wednesday, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see her not serving until she is completely healthy.

Outside hitter Ally Batenhorst is also a talented server and put down a total of 171 career aces in her four seasons at Seven Lakes (Texas) High School.

Middle blocker Whitney Lauenstein had 87 aces in her four-year career at Waverly (Neb.) High School. She played in 281 sets which equals 0.31 aces per set.

Lauenstein told HuskerOnline that she has been working hard on her back row passing which could mean she’ll have opportunities to serve then play back row.

The talent in this class is apparent and it’ll be interesting to see who becomes a major contributor behind the service line and who racks up the most aces.

1. Lexi Sun

2. Keonilei Akana

3. Kenzie Knuckles

Other players to watch: Madi Kubik, Lexi Rodriguez, Whitney Lauenstein