Of Nebraska’s ‘What Ifs’ this season, one stands out from the rest

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The moment remains seared into John Cook’s brain.

Nothing looked out of the ordinary. A routine play in practice. A freak accident. A torn ACL for senior captain and defensive specialist Kenzie Knuckles. Cook’s first-ever in-practice ACL tear spanning his entire coaching career.

“How did she get hurt and why did she get hurt?” Cook said Thursday. “I still can’t wrap my head around it. The play is in my mind, what happened and how it happened and it just — if I showed you guys on video, you would think it was nothing.”

There are always “What Ifs” for every season of sports and every aspect of life. There are several for Nebraska volleyball’s alone: What if Kayla Caffey didn’t transfer? What if Nicklin Hames was healthy all season? What if Kennedi Orr took the next step in her college progression?

But this one — What if Knuckles didn’t tear her ACL — is a question Nebraska volleyball fans will ponder for some time. Especially this weekend when the Final Four is held in Omaha without the Huskers.

“I’ve said all year that Kenzie is the best middle-back defensive player in the country,” Cook said the Friday after her injury “I really believe that.”

The timing of Knuckles’ injury couldn’t have been worse: the final week of the regular season right before two monumental matches against No. 3 Wisconsin and No. 9 Minnesota.

Heading into those matches, the Huskers were in position to clinch at least a share of the Big Ten title for the first time since 2017. The Huskers needed to beat Wisconsin — something they hadn’t done in the previous nine straight matches — in order to do so. A tall task, but not entirely out of the question.

Instead, without Knuckles, the Huskers dropped a 3-1 match to Wisconsin and were swept by Minnesota. With those two losses, the Huskers dropped from No. 5 to No. 7 in the AVCA rankings and earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament.

If the Huskers would have at least one of those matches, how would that have affected their seeding? Or if they won both and won the Big Ten title? Would they have been in the top four and hosted regionals weekend instead of traveling to Louisville?

“We went from the best middle-back player in the country to somebody who hasn’t played very much back there. We had this system set up for Kenzie to be in the back row as much as possible,” Cook said Thursday, adding that NU’s 6-2 system was designed around Knuckles. “She allowed us to be able to take advantage of literally playing two great liberos.”

This isn’t to knock Ally Batenhorst in any way, shape or form. Not at all.

The sophomore outside hitter stepped up the last three weeks — notably, she was the only Husker to make the All-Louisville Regional team. But it’s just so difficult to go from only playing in the front row to having to play in all six spots and serve on a moment’s notice. Even if she had been training in practice on it, that’s a really tough adjustment to make.

“Ally held her own, but there’s digs back there that Kenzie would have made,” Cook said. “… But, it gave Ally a great opportunity and I thought she competed really hard.”

The Huskers are now in offseason mode, but volleyball isn’t over.

The field: No. 1 Texas, No. 3 San Diego, No. 4 Louisville and No. 6 Pittsburgh.

No Big Ten teams whatsoever in the Final Four for the first time since 2006. First time ever that the December Classic is in Omaha and Nebraska’s not there.

Someone else will hoist the trophy on Dec. 17 at the CHI Health Center.

Maybe it’ll be former Husker Dani Busboom Kelly and Louisville. Maybe it’ll be former Huskers Keonilei Akana and Kayla Caffey with Texas. Maybe it’ll be Millard North alumna Kate Galvin and San Diego. Maybe it’ll be Springfield native and Platteville alumna Sabrina Starks with Pittsburgh.

But regardless, it’s hard not to look back and wonder what could have been for Nebraska.