As Nebraska Huskers Volleyball Recruit High School Star, Will This Be a Success Story or Another Maggie Mendelson Episode?

The Nebraska Huskers Women’s Volleyball Team had created a unique and positive identity for itself in the 2023 season. The Huskers focused heavily on recruiting good talent and making them ready to take on the entire NCAA. While this boosted the image of Nebraska, it also gifted it with top-class homegrown players who secured a berth in the national finals.

Continuing the same legacy, John Cook is going to hire another great high school talent in the 2024 season. A recent social media upload showcased a few glimpses of the player as she won another high school honor. But will this new recruit help Nebraska win the finals they lost in 2023? Or will this turn out to be the same mistake as 2023?

The piercing new recruit of the Nebraska Huskers

Skyler Pierce committed to the Nebraska Huskers back in July 2022 and is the fourth-ranked volleyball recruit for the 2024 season. Pierce is an outside hitter with astonishingly high offensive and defensive numbers. While the Nebraska commit boasts a massive 4.6 kills per set, she also ensures that almost every swing she makes results in a kill.

Skyler Pierce has a staggeringly high attacking efficiency of 0.402 percent and also has 67 service aces to her name. Moreover, defensively speaking, the outside hitter secured a whopping 230 digs in her senior high school year along with 43 blocks. While her stats are amazing, the future Nebraska Huskers player was also a Team USA member in the 2023 FIVB U-21 World Championship.

Skyler Pierce has been looking forward to joining the Nebraska Huskers for a very long time. She has already attended several camps in Nebraska and was instantly drawn to the way the Huskers operate and the culture they have. In fact, while she is excited about playing as a Husker, so is Nebraska’s head coach John Cook.

The mutual love on both sides 

According to BVM Sports, Skyler Pierce said, “From the beginning, I was around the Nebraska community… Being around them so much across the years at camps, I think that helped me build that connection with them. I wanted to go somewhere that felt like home and I knew from the beginning that Nebraska definitely had that feeling for me.” 

She also added, “Being in that arena, having that feeling of, ‘Wow, I think I could really play here,’ was something surreal. I knew if I got that call I couldn’t pass up that opportunity.” This sentiment was echoed by Coach Cook as well, who voiced his confidence in the future Nebraska Huskers player.

John Cook noted, “Skyler already bleeds Husker red and has traveled to more of our matches than any recruit we’ve had before. Skyler is an incredibly gifted athlete who is not only a great attacker, but can serve, pass and play defense in the back row as well.” While the atmosphere may seem quite sparkly, this development resembles a previous pattern. A pattern that sunk the Nebraska Huskers in 2022.

READ MORE: Will Ex-Nebraska Huskers Volleyball Player Maggie Mendelson Be Able to Achieve What She Couldn’t With Nebraska at Penn State?

In 2022, the Nebraska Huskers recruited middle blocker Maggie Mendelson. The new recruit was ranked fourth overall in the class of 2022 and her stats showed a lot of promise. John Cook needed a strong player in his arsenal to overturn his 2021 finals defeat against Kelly Sheffield’s Wisconsin Badgers. While he thought he was right on the money with Mendelson, the next two seasons showed him how wrong he was. 

A familiar predicament right after another final loss

John Cook couldn’t use Mendelson in a lot of matches due to her lackluster performances. Her upward trajectory instantly spiraled downward, and instead of winning the finals, the Nebraska Huskers couldn’t even clear the playoffs. Surprisingly, a lot of those patterns seem to be repeating this season as well.

Skyler Pierce is also ranked fourth in the recruitment class of 2024. Her high school records show immense promise and she has also played for Team USA. The Nebraska Huskers lost the 2023 finals once again. While these coincidences don’t really matter, the last coincidence in both these cases is very crucial. Skyler Pierce also plays basketball along with volleyball.

Spectrum News Kansas City recently tweeted a video via its official X account. The video showcased the future Nebraska Huskers player dominating the basketball court as part of her final high school action.

This combination badly affected the performance of Maggie Mendelson. 2023 freshers like Harper Murray and Bergen Reilly proved to be great assets for the Nebraska Huskers compared to Mendelson. Mendelson transferred to Penn State just recently. Notably, she will only play volleyball from now on since she no longer has to rely on basketball for an athletic scholarship.

ALSO READ – Has Taylor Landfair’s Move to the Nebraska Huskers Volleyball Been Delayed?

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln doesn’t offer a volleyball scholarship so far, despite its volleyball program winning five NCAA titles. Moreover, the Huskers have also produced reigning Olympic gold medalist Jordan Larson from their ranks. While a volleyball scholarship may not suddenly spring up, will Pierce continue as a basketball player in Nebraska? Will she be able to handle both sports if she does? The answers to all these questions will be clear after Pierce officially joins the Nebraska Huskers.

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