The 2024 NCAA D1 Volleyball Championship didn’t pan out the way the Nebraska Huskers would have wanted it to. Despite an incredible regular season, John Cook’s girls fell to fellow Big Ten colleagues Penn State in the national semifinals. Naturally, it was a heartbreak for the fans and the athletes alike. However, it looks like the NCAA powerhouse is scurrying to make amends by beefing up its roster for the next season.

After the Huskers’ disappointing national campaign, several of its emphatic seniors left the Lincoln campus. While Coach Cook was eager to give the exiting stars a proper parting gift, that wasn’t to be. However, with a fresh season on the horizon, Nebraska is determined to maintain its dominant momentum by roping in yet another rising star.

A post by Abby Barmore on X from January 10 reveals the newest athlete to join the Nebraska Huskers roster. Mercy High School graduate Campbell Flynn will join Cook’s squad as a setter from her freshman year in 2025. Flynn is a back-to-back National Volleyball Gatorade Player of the Year honoree thanks to her sensational performance at the high school level. Olympic beach volleyball gold medalist April Ross presented Campbell at school on Friday to hand the honor to her.

The top high school athlete received the award for her all-around impressive performance both on and off the court. With a GPA of 3.94, Campbell proved that she’s a star at both work and play. Flynn was also named the Michigan Gatorade Player of the Year just a day before, highlighting how her prowess is recognized at both the national and state circuit. Naturally, the newest Nebraska Huskers recruit was over the moon with the praises showering down on her.

In her senior year, Flynn helped Mercy High School finish the season with an impressive 29-3 record. With 1.6 kills and 2.4 digs per set in her final season, she showed that her skills make her future in the NCAA scene bright, and the Nebraska Huskers were quick to get her on board to make up for the void left behind by the seniors. “It means so much,” Campbell said after receiving the honors while noting her excitement to joining Cook’s squad as her next adventure. However, she will need to pull up her socks quickly so she can touch the ground running and shoulder the tough responsibility ahead.

The Nebraska Huskers look to compensate for the players who left

At the end of the 2024-25 season, several Nebraska seniors including team co-captain Lexi Rodriguez and outside hitters Lindsay Krause and Merritt Beason left the Huskers. With that, their hopes of lifting the NCAA trophy remained an unfulfilled goal that John Cook wasn’t able to guide them to. All of these collegiate stars now wait to make their professional debut across different tournaments including the Pro Volleyball Federation’s Real Pro Volleyball and the League One Volleyball.

But the three-time Olympian Ross thinks Campbell has what it takes to become a star. “I think she comes off as very humble, which is important,” the former beach volleyball star noted after her interaction with Flynn on Friday. She also gave the rising star a heads-up about what to expect in her new life as a Huskers athlete.

“I was telling her, when she goes to Nebraska, she’s going to be with an amazing group of athletes,” Ross told the high school graduate, and we can’t wait to see if Flynn can help the Huskers fans celebrate an NCAA triumph in her first year at Lincoln. How do you think she will fare? Tell us in a comment below.