The freshmen on the Nebraska volleyball team — Lindsay Krause, Ally Batenhorst, Whitney Lauenstein, Kennedi Orr, Lexi Rodriguez and Rylee Gray — make up the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation.
EAKIN HOWARD, Journal Star
Nebraska's Lindsay Krause (center) celebrates with the White Team after a point against the Red during an intrasquad scrimmage on Saturday at the Devaney Sports Center.
EAKIN HOWARD, Journal Star
Lexi Rodriguez (right) of the Red team passes in front of Lexi Sun in the first set of Nebraska's Red-White Scrimmage on Saturday at the Devaney Sports Center.
It was a long shot, but Jerritt Elliott tried anyway.
The head coach for the Texas volleyball team made a trip to Omaha to watch Lindsay Krause at a club volleyball practice, just so she'd know Texas really wanted her.
That was 2017, and many around college volleyball already knew Krause was going to be a good one. Most of the coaches knew she’d probably end up playing for Nebraska, but they still came.
The Nebraska coaches were at Krause’s practice, too. Several years later, Nebraska associate head coach Tyler Hildebrand still remembers it well.
“We’re sitting there, this is in Omaha and we’re local and then we see Jerritt,†Hildebrand said. “Coach (John Cook) goes, ‘That’s how good Lindsay is. Texas is flying in to see an eighth-grader practice.’â€
A few months later, Krause committed to Nebraska, about one month before she played her first high school match. Some people used a comparison that’s pretty sacred around here, saying Krause played like Jordan Larson had 15 years earlier in those same club gyms in Nebraska.
Krause was the second commit to Nebraska’s 2021 recruiting class, after Lexi Rodriguez. And then the momentum was rolling on what would become one of the best recruiting classes in any college sport during the recruiting ranking era, with four of the top-10 recruits coming to Nebraska.
This week, the group goes from recruiting class to college volleyball players.
They will be mixed in with players who are four or five years older. There will be some moments that showed they were worth the hype, and some humbling moments. At least three of the freshmen are expected be in the starting lineup at some point this weekend when Nebraska plays three matches in a stretch of about 30 hours.
The class consists of setter Kennedi Orr, libero Lexi Rodriguez, middle blocker Rylee Gray and hitters Ally Batenhorst, Whitney Lauenstein and Krause.
A quick review of the class:
* The two publications that rank recruits picked different No. 1 players — both are Huskers. chose Orr, while Volleyball Magazine went with Krause. A third player, Batenhorst, was the Gatorade national player of the year, an award that considers volleyball and academics.
* In the recruit list, Nebraska swept the top three spots — Orr, Krause and Batenhorst.
* Nebraska got the top recruit in the class at three positions — setter (Orr), outside hitter (Krause) and libero (Rodriguez).
* The top player in four states — Nebraska (Krause), Minnesota (Orr), Texas (Batenhorst), and Illinois (Rodriguez) — chose Nebraska, despite Minnesota and Illinois also having solid Big Ten volleyball programs.
The best Cook can recall, the Huskers went 6-for-6 for the class, getting commits from each player they offered. The class is so good, you can’t say for certain who the best player is.
Krause committed just before her freshmen year of high school. Some of Hildebrand’s friends ask him how you know if they’re going to be good when they’re only in eighth grade. His answer was that they look like Krause did.
“She was 6-2 or 6-3, she had a huge arm, she could jump. You just know at that point,†Hildebrand said. “You don’t know how they’re going to develop in all aspects. But when they’re already physically capable of training with the Huskers — which she was at that age — with that arm, that jump and that physicality, then you’re going to get the opportunity to play with USA and you’re going to get these opportunities to play in big matches in club. So you’re going to be getting the best development opportunities.â€
Batenhorst’s story is similar to that of All-America middle blocker Lauren Stivrins, as state connections to Nebraska helped the Huskers' recruiting pitch. Stivrins is from Arizona, but her father grew up in Lincoln. Batenhorst is from Houston, but her parents are from Nebraska, and most of her family still lives in the state. Her dad, Kurt, is from Wisner. Her mother, Susan (O’Rourke), is from Omaha.
Batenhorst could have gone to Stanford, and that’s a tough university to turn down because of its academic reputation and successful volleyball program (seven national championships).
Having Stanford on your resume looks pretty good when it's time to get an internship or begin a career. And sometimes when a college coach hears that a recruit is waiting to see if they’ll get admitted to Stanford, they have a good idea they won't get that player.
But when it came time for Batenhorst to make her decision, she told her family that “these are my people,†referring to the four recruits who had already committed to Nebraska’s 2021 recruiting class.
“We met really early on, and some of us played on the USA team together my sophomore year,†Batenhorst said. “I think we just built that bond really early. And (I was born in Omaha) so I’ve just known a lot of people here, and it’s always been home to me. After visiting all of these colleges, there were a lot of amazing programs, but I think being with the team here, it just felt right for me.â€
Lauenstein was the last player to earn a spot in the class as a junior. In a rarity for a Husker volleyball player, she played on her high school’s junior varsity volleyball team as a freshman at Waverly before improving a lot and earning a chance to play for the Huskers.
“I’ve always had to work hard for everything, obviously,†Lauenstein said. “I just really had to show a lot more and that I was legit and I wasn’t just an average JV player.â€
Photos: Husker volleyball team showcased in Red-White Scrimmage
PrepVolleyball.com has ranked the top college volleyball recruiting classes for several years, with Nebraska having the No. 1-ranked recruiting class in 2004, 2013 and 2021. Nebraska has had top-10 classes in four of the past five years. Here is how Nebraska stacked up each season:
The freshmen on the Nebraska volleyball team — Lindsay Krause, Ally Batenhorst, Whitney Lauenstein, Kennedi Orr, Lexi Rodriguez and Rylee Gray — make up the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation.
Nebraska's Lindsay Krause (center) celebrates with the White Team after a point against the Red during an intrasquad scrimmage on Saturday at the Devaney Sports Center.
Lexi Rodriguez (right) of the Red team passes in front of Lexi Sun in the first set of Nebraska's Red-White Scrimmage on Saturday at the Devaney Sports Center.