Obviously not the tournament result they hoped for, but they end the season 26-6. You can’t take anything away from that. They are still one of the best programs in the country.
Congrats to Husker Volleyball on the Season
- Thread starter Clevinger
- Start date
It would take Scott Frost 6-7 years to get 26 wins!
Yep, definitely feels like a couple of gals will be moving on - if the setter from SD pans out, next year will be a good year.
Injuries. Pretty tough situation at end of the year to be forced to put a hitter in to play the back row
Caffey and Akana transferring was huge, and losing Knuckles at the end. I can't remember a season where the starting lineup changed so often after conference play began.
Lots of things, which most teams probably wouldn't have overcome to achieve as far as they did.
1) Kennedi Orr didn't pan out as a capable replacement to Nicklin Hames. Forced Cook to run a 6-2 system, which is not ideal.
2) Hames also injured part of the year. Never had a consistent rotation. Always had to go to the "hot hand" to see who was attacking the best each game (see #5).
3) Maddie Kubik played like a 1st team AA one game, then seemed to disappear in other games.
4) Kaitlyn Hord was an AA middle blocker at Penn State, but never flashed that this year. She apparently did not have the skills to run the slide, which we did a lot with Stivrins. That is one less weapon to attack defenses with.
5) Lauenstein, Krause, and Batenhorst all had great games and great stretches, but also had stretches where they also disappeared (see #3).
6) Except for Bekka Allick, not the consistent blocking like we have had in previous years. Puts a lot of additional pressure on the back row defense. Rodriguez and Knuckles are outstanding, but it seemed opponent outside hitters were able to attack spots they couldn't before.
7) Personally, and nothing more than MHO, I don't think the chemistry was there like we have seen in past seasons. Seemed like there was more talk this year about Cook and the team doing more chemistry type of things, which leads me to believe he was trying to create something that wasn't there naturally.
After all that, it is actually somewhat amazing we got as far as we did.
Great takes, Tim. Hord just never got untracked on offense, I thought eventually some chemistry with the setters would gel and it never happened. Would have preferred keeping Caffey on the roster. I will add that this year's team also didn't seem to have a "put them on their back" leader like Stivrins and Foecke in past years that would just will the team to victory. I thought Kubik would take that mantel but she never seemed to. I do have hopes for Lauenstein in that regard next year. And we really need a new top-notch, Alpha setter.
Anni Evans in the portal, probably best for her.
I wonder if this team frustrated Cook. Great players, very good record, but just didn’t have the killer instinct or the ability to play well at the end of the games when playing their tough opponents.
This shocked me. She's a Junior and wasn't it just last spring Cook surprised her with a 'ship in an emotional ceremony?
Maybe with the #1 Setter coming in next year she saw the writing on the wall? Or Cook told her she was in for a fierce battle for playing time?
She's not stupid. She hears the criticism she gets. It's justified. Better to move on and play a bunch vs being overtaken.
Same. We haven't had one alpha like Foecke or Stivrins rise up. Good play from several hitters, but streaky and inconsistent.
It sure seems seems like Allick is that alpha hitter. When she's on and feeling it she's a beast. True freshman! 😎
That's the one I had in the back of my mind with the potential.
The girl we have coming in from Michigan looks like a monster too.
