John Cook broke protocol when the Nebraska volleyball coach made Mikaela Foecke and Kenzie Maloney team captains several months before this season began.
That’s usually a decision that doesn’t come until just before practice begins in August or, in the case of last year, got delayed until about a week before the first match.
But this season Cook didn’t overthink it. Foecke and Maloney were the obvious choices. They were major players on a national championship winning team as freshmen, and won again as juniors in 2017. And as the only juniors or seniors on the rosters at the time, there likely wasn't going to be any hard feelings from the other players.
Foecke and Maloney seem to have embraced the role. While it will be difficult to match last year’s conference and national championships, they’re not about to concede a letdown on their watch, which jibes with Cook’s stance that the current year is always the right time to go after another national championship.
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After a summer of strength and conditioning workouts and informal player-led training, the Huskers are just a few days from practice beginning. The team will have its media day on Tuesday, with practice beginning the next day.
It was in March before the team headed out for a trip to Hawaii for the beach volleyball season that Cook told Foecke and Maloney they would be team captains. The captains from last season, Kelly Hunter and Annika Albrecht, were still part of the program, but Cook wanted the new captains to begin the transition to a larger leadership role.
Maloney was hoping to be a captain, and is thrilled to do so with Foecke.
“We’ve been here longer than everyone, obviously, and we’ve got a lot of games under our belt, and a lot of championships under our belt so I feel like it’s natural for people to already look to those kind of people to be your leader,†Maloney said. “And I think over the years your personality kind of gets shaped here, so by your senior year you’re not afraid to lead anymore. You kind of want to lead, and you want people to look at you to be the person to tell them what to do.â€
There were signs during the preseason last year that Foecke was trying to take more of a leadership role, and now she’ll officially have that role.
“I think everybody always dreams about being a captain, but it’s not necessarily that you just want to be the captain,†Foecke said. “You just want to be a leader and a good teammate for your fellow teammates and be able to push them and show them the right direction.â€
She was honored when Cook shared the news with her.
“Being a captain here is something huge,†Foecke said. “Nebraska volleyball is one of the best programs in the nation, if not the best, and so to be able to say that you were a captain here is a very large honor.â€
This will be another intriguing season for the Huskers. There are some talented and experienced players on the roster, including Foecke, Maloney, transfer outside hitter Lexi Sun, Lauren Stivrins and Jazz Sweet.
But at setter the Huskers will probably be playing freshman Nicklin Hames or Mari Kurkova, a recent addition from the Czech Republic who hasn’t played a college match. Another freshman, Callie Schwarzenbach, may start at middle blocker. They’ll be a few new players in the serving rotation.
Friends and fans keep asking Foecke how the Huskers will be this season. How does she answer?
“Better than ever,†Foecke said. “I mean, I don’t know why we couldn’t win another national championship. We may have eight new people, but it’s not like we didn’t bring in any talent. The girls coming in are great. They’re great outsides, great middles, great setters, great liberos. I don’t think we’ll be lacking. We just have to be able to put it all together and have that chemistry to be able to build off one another.â€
Maloney tells people that the start of the season could be interesting with so many new players. But she says you only need to look back to last season to see what can be accomplished. The Huskers had graduated All-Americans Kadie Rolfzen, Justine Wong-Orantes and Amber Rolfzen, but still won a championship in something of a rebuilding year in 2017.
“We lost a few All-Americans (Hunter and Albrecht), but it kind of reminds me of the previous season after we had lost All-Americans and people were kind of worried about losing all of that talent but we had more talent come in and, I mean, we did great last season,†Maloney said. “So I’m not really worried about so much what we lost but more focused on what we’ve gained, and that’s hard working girls that have a great mindset and want to get better every day.â€
It has been a summer in which the player leadership has been important because the roster has been changing right up until the start of the season. The freshmen arrived in June, but some late additions to the roster only arrived in the past few weeks. Kurkova didn’t get to Lincoln until Thursday evening.