Last weekend for Lindsay Krause begin with a slow start and a trip to the bench, and it ended with conference recognition. The Michigan trip is a microcosm of the season thus far for the junior pin hitter from Papillion.
Krause earned a starting job heading into the season, though she wasn’t terminating early on at the rate she showed herself capable of over the second half of her sophomore season. Then a hit-and-run accident knocked her out of the lineup with a shoulder injury.
Krause missed Nebraska’s match against Kentucky, then Coach John Cook opted to stick with Ally Batenhorst during the team’s first Big Ten weekend against Ohio State and Minnesota. With Batenhorst struggling against Purdue the following weekend, Cook turned to Krause off the bench and she took advantage of the opportunity to win the starting role back.
“I think it’s been a very up and down, emotionally, season,” Krause said. “I feel like being able to get my chance back in the starting lineup two weeks ago was really good for me, just to get back in there. I didn’t really have many expectations, I just wanted to go out there and play hard. So it’s been really good and everyone’s been really supportive of me. Especially when it was something that happened outside of volleyball, so it was kind of really out of my control which made it all the more frustrating. But everyone — support staff, teammates, everyone was really supportive of me.”
Krause has committed just one attack error in each of her last four matches, totaling eight, nine, nine and 15 kills. Though the hot streak began before Jordan Larson arrived in Lincoln to join the coaching staff, Krause said Larson’s experience has been a valuable resource for her.
“I think she just brings a lot of insight and a calming presence to the outside position,” Krause said. “Like I mentioned, I think, maybe last week or two weeks ago, how she’s able to really focus on us outsides specifically and let Coach kind of loosen up and look at the big picture. So I think that has happened a lot over the last few weeks, which is really, really good. And she’s been playing pro volleyball for the last 15 years, so that’s also a really big presence. She’s doing exactly what we’re doing every day.”
After a slow start for Krause against Michigan State last Friday, Cook called Batenhorst’s number late in the first set. However, he went back to Krause to start the second set and she went on to record nine kills on .381 hitting. She followed that with a team-high 15 kills on .519 hitting against Michigan on Saturday.
On Monday, the Big Ten named her Offensive Player of the Week, the first such recognition of her career.
“I don’t know if I was surprised, it just wasn’t on my mind at all,” Krause said about the award. “Where I found out actually was I was checking out at the Trader Joe’s and I get a text from one of my old club coaches just saying congrats and I was like, ‘What?’ I had no idea, and she was like, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize you didn’t know,’ and said it was like eight minutes ago. I had no idea and I got all emotional because that was something that’s been a big goal of mine for the last couple of years.”
The last two weeks were enough to bump Krause’s hitting percentage up to .298, the highest among Nebraska’s pins. Cook said multiple times he was looking for someone to step up and produce consistently in the L2 spot, and Krause has certainly done that over the past two weeks.
“She hit .400 last week too,” Cook said. “We need her to do that every week. That’s what we’ve been talking about, somebody’s got to kill balls in that spot. It makes us a really tough team to defend when they’re doing that. Lindsay is a warrior, she’s battling, she competes really hard and so she’s doing a really good job.”
Cook has gone back and forth on who gets to serve between Krause, who plays the front-row rotations, and Laney Choboy, who plays for Krause in the back row. He gave Krause a chance last weekend and the junior made the most of it, serving a pair of aces in each match.
“She was really thumping it all week,” Cook said. “Laney was struggling in there a little bit, so I said ‘Let’s go.’ Her, Ally and Hayden [Kubik] are all prepared to come in and serve. The difference is Laney is such a great defensive player, we give that up a little bit. But Lindsay made some really nice digs and had some huge runs for us. We’ve got confidence in all of those guys to serve.”
After finding her rhythm offensively, Krause is is hoping to make serving a consistent part of her game moving forward as she looks to continue rounding out her skill set.
“Obviously I got to serve in a couple of matches this past weekend,” Krause said. “That’s something I’ve been really working on all spring and summer, really. I really want to be able to make an impact with my serve and keep working on that, and then just continue developing my blocking and passing.”
Krause’s season has been filled with ups and downs, but the Huskers are 15-0 and the junior has played a big part in getting them there. Through the adversity she’s faced, she’s developed a new perspective and approach to attacking the season.
“I’m not going to let anything that happens to me happen because of something that I can control myself,” Krause said. “I can’t control my stats, I can’t control if I get a kill or not, but I can control how aggressively I’m swinging at the ball, how energized I am, how much fun I’m having. So that’s something, I’m going to control everything that I can and I’m just going let what else happens happen.”
The mindset change has produced some of the best volleyball of Krause’s career, and she’ll look to carry that forward as the Huskers are back at home this weekend for what will likely be her first matches at the Devaney Center since her injury.
