Mikaela Foecke isn’t going to be walking back out on the court to play for the Nebraska volleyball team again.
She’s the first-team All-American who had 187 more kills than any other Husker last season, the player who looked like she was having an off night and still ended up with 20 kills and hit .300, the player Nebraska always went to in the biggest moments. But she was a senior in 2018.
So if Nebraska is going to have similar success to last year, then it needs the returning players to make up the difference, and so far junior outside hitter Lexi Sun is helping the Huskers do that.
Sun extended her good start to the season by leading the No. 2-ranked Huskers to two wins on Friday in the Ameritas Players Challenge, improving Nebraska’s record to 6-0.
She had 14 kills with a .650 hitting percentage when Nebraska beat High Point in the first match of the day 25-16, 25-22, 25-8. That was the best hitting percentage she’s had in 33 matches at Nebraska.
People are also reading…
Sun was also the Huskers’ most productive hitter in a 25-23, 25-17, 25-12 win against Denver on Friday evening, with seven kills on .333 hitting.
Against High Point Sun was especially good in the second set, when she had eight kills on nine attempts with no hitting errors. She had kills on 13 of her final 16 attempts of the match.
Nebraska coach John Cook said Sun did a great job of following the game plan. High Point had a hole in its defense down the line.
“She got a lot of easy kills because of the defense they play,†Cook said. “Sometimes the coaches know, and if they listen, they get rewarded.â€
Sun has led the Huskers in kills in every match. As the only Husker who has played full time in both the front and back row, she probably should be doing that.
But in her first season at Nebraska last year after the former No. 1 national recruit transferred from Texas, she at times struggled with consistency from one match to the next.
This year, Cook is seeing signs that Sun can be consistently good.
“She’s a more complete player than she was last year,†Cook said.
In the past, Sun only hit a few shots, and the good teams could stop that.
“Now you got to defend the whole court with her,†Cook said.
Sun has a .319 season hitting percentage, after hitting .195 last season.
Cook said Nebraska’s older players such as Sun, Lauren Stivrins and Jazz Sweet are going to have to be good this season.
“Those guys are going to have to do it, because they can’t turn around and look at the freshmen and have them start doing it,†he said. “I’m not asking anybody to replace (Foecke), but as a group they’re going to have to do that if we want to be the kind of team we can be.â€
This season Sun says she is more comfortable with each of the different shots Cook wants her to hit, and has a better understanding of how Nebraska plays.
How do the Huskers play, exactly?
“I think clean volleyball,†Sun said. “They have their way of doing things specifically for every single technique and (skill). Passing and setting we all have different things that we’re supposed to be doing for those things, and they work. I think it’s just buying into that and performing.â€
In both matches Nebraska was at its best in the third set, limiting its opponent to 8 and 12 points.
In the second match Nebraska had six of its 11 blocks in the third set. Denver had a minus-.021 hitting percentage for the match. Callie Schwarzenbach had two kills on two attempts in the third set.
“I always think it’s good if you play better as the match goes on and figure things out and make adjustments and start imposing our will on our opponents,†Cook said. “That’s a really good skill to have.â€
Stivrins had six blocks against Denver, and Sweet four.