Kaitlyn Hord’s summer has been so busy that she didn’t have time to properly celebrate her graduation from college.
The 6-foot-4 middle blocker finished her undergraduate degree at Penn State in May. After a quick pit stop at her home in Louisville to sort through all her belongings, Hord headed to Nebraska to begin work for her final college season.
“It was kind of like boom, boom, boom. I didn’t get a very long break at home,†Hord said. “I didn’t really get to celebrate (graduating). I forgot. So I do have to do that at some point.â€
After working alongside her new teammates for two months, the three-time All-American has seamlessly fit in with the Huskers and is already making an impact.
Hord has also made a positive impression on her teammates during summer workouts.
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Senior Kenzie Knuckles said Hord suggested they start debriefing each workout to discuss what went well and what they could improve next time. During the season, NU coach John Cook would often lead the debriefs or sometimes defer to a player, but the task falls solely to the players without Cook at summer workouts.
Knuckles said she offered to have Hord start leading the meetings right away, but Hord deferred to her more established teammates and she’d join in eventually.
“She came up to me when she first got here, and she thought (debriefs) would be really helpful,†Knuckles said. “I was like, I love it. We started it and it’s been awesome.â€
In addition, Hord’s time with her teammates during open gyms has been eye-opening. They have broken down drills step-by-step to help Hord understand how the Huskers train, improving her approach to practice. She’s also been going through strength workouts and doing physical therapy.
Hord said the first few days were hard for her and she didn’t know her body could move the ways she wanted. Now, she can’t wait for fall practices to begin next month.
“At first, I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know if I can do this.’†she said. “Then, after a week, I was like, ‘OK, it’s getting easier.’ Keeping an open mind is really key, but so is learning a lot and having a lot of fun.â€
Off the court, Hord has helped with camps during the summer and taken advantage of other opportunities to hang out. Knuckles said Hord has been a natural fit with the team chemistry.
“She’s awesome. She blends right in,†Knuckles said. “I feel like our team has so many different people on it, but we mesh so well. We all have such different personalities, so it’s not really hard when we get transfers or new people coming in to find somebody that you connect with.â€
Even though the players spend a lot of time together, they don’t get sick of one another. In fact, when she went home for the Fourth of July, Hord said she missed her new teammates a bit.
“They’re a very tight-knit group, which I was really wanting,†Hord said. "It’s like a family here, so I’m very happy to be among them.â€