Four Nebraska volleyball newcomers made their Devaney Center debut during Saturday’s Red-White Scrimmage, including freshman middle blocker Kenna Cogill.
The 6-foot-4 middle from Gilbert, Arizona, made a great first impression on the 8,414 fans packed inside John Cook Arena.
Unlike fellow freshmen Teraya Sigler, Keri Leimbach and Ryan Hunter, Cogill wasn’t on campus for the spring exhibition against Kansas, so Saturday was her first exposure to the Devaney Center atmosphere as a Husker.
“It was so exciting,” Cogill said. “Dreaming of it and thinking about what it’s going to be like whenever I walk in is a lot different than actually doing it. Walking in and just seeing everything and everything filled up, I was like, ‘Wow, this is amazing.’ It was so fun.”
Cogill said the nerves hit her early, but after talking with her teammates she was able to settle in after the first five points and lock in on the action on the court. Cogill finished with 10 kills on .421 hitting and five blocks while splitting time between the Red and White squads. Coach Dani Busboom Kelly called her performance “super impressive.”
“Kenna is unique because she’s a really late commit for us,” Busboom Kelly said. “She knows that we were kind of teetering. Do we want a fourth middle, do we not? Is she the right one? We decided to pull the trigger, and she took a risk, knowing she was going to come here with three middles that we were really comfortable with, and she’s just been so good in practice. She’s that player, you look at the stats every day and you’re like, ‘Wow, Kenna did amazing.’ She’s just a quiet killer. She’s going to get the ball and do something great with it, and I thought she was fantastic today.”
Senior middle blocker Rebekah Allick echoed her coach’s assessment, calling Cogill’s performance “amazing.”
“Are you kidding?” Allick said, with Cogill by her side. “I specifically remember a gap shot you had; one of the middles was diving in, and you recognized it, and you cut it back, and that was something that we haven’t really been working on. You saw it and you went for it. I was very proud of her. Yeah, very mature swing.”
Cogill said the speed of the game has been the most challenging adjustment to college volleyball, but she credited her teammates for helping her catch up.
“Going from club to college, it’s definitely way different, the tempo is way faster, everything’s way faster,” Cogill said. “I feel like my teammates have done an amazing job of getting me used to it and then building me up whenever I’m feeling down and feeling like I’m not doing it. So I feel like the adjustment’s been pretty easy.”
Cogill also spoke highly of fellow freshman middle blocker Manaia Ogbechie. Her offensive stats weren’t as gaudy with five kills on .188 hitting, but she put her blocking prowess on full display with a match-high eight stuffs.
“I think she did amazing,” Cogill said. “Both of us coming in, we were nervous, there were so many nerves, and I think she did amazing. Her blocking is so good, her hitting is so good.”
Freshman Ryan Hunter was the lone opposite hitter on the roster during the spring and made the most of it with an explosive debut against Kansas, but that position is a bit more crowded now with the arrival of Baylor transfer Allie Szcech and Italian recruit Virginia Adriano. With three right side hitters, Nebraska ran a 6-2 on one side and a 5-1 on the other during the scrimmage, rotating all three opposites in and out all afternoon to give them each significant opportunity.
Szcech finished with six kills on .038 hitting, five digs and three blocks. Adriano got off to a hot start, showing off a big arm and a powerful swing before the opposite side’s blocking really keyed in on her and provided some valuable teaching tape. She finished with 11 kills and nine errors, hitting .071 with five digs, three aces and one block.
“I thought Virginia had some great stuff and some things that aren’t working great, and she’s doing those in practice,” Busboom Kelly said. “This film will be great for her to kind of really see where she can improve, because she’s a smart volleyball player and she can make adjustments quickly and she takes coaching very well.”
Saturday wasn’t freshman outside hitter Teraya Sigler’s debut, but she certainly made some splash plays en route to a 10-kill, 10-dig double-double. It wasn’t a flawless performance by any means with seven errors and a .091 hitting percentage, but she displayed a powerful arm and impressive back-row ball control, and she served up two aces as well.
“I think she’s one of our athletes who can sometimes be hard on herself, but it’s because she cares so much,” Allick said. “I’m really proud of her. I think sometimes with younger athletes, you can see them get internal and not want to come out, because that’s where they’re comfortable. But even in moments that she wasn’t making great plays, she still stayed external, and from there, she got herself back on track and making great swings. So overall, I’m really proud of her.”
The ability to persevere through struggles for all the young players is something that caught Busboom Kelly’s eye on Saturday.
“Just their confidence and that when they got the ball, usually something positive happened, and if it didn’t, then their body language and their communication was still really mature for freshmen or Virginia, who’s not a typical freshman, but she’s still is; she’s new here,” Busboom Kelly said. “So I’m just really impressed with their overall maturity and confidence.”
