Fourteen Nebraska prep products will suit up for Big Ten volleyball teams this fall, and two of them represented their squads at Big Ten Volleyball Media Day in Chicago on Monday.
The headliner was Elkhorn North graduate Grace Heaney, a 6-foot-2 opposite hitter heading into her fourth season with the Purdue Boilermakers.
“Grace Heaney, who is onstage today, from up in Nebraska, took a year off two years ago because she had surgery,” Purdue coach Dave Shondell said. “Came back and had a really good year last year. She’s a totally different player than she was then.”
Heaney played in 22 matches with six starts as a freshman in 2023, averaging 1.33 kills per set on .193 hitting. She missed the entire 2024 season with an injury but returned with a vengeance last season, blossoming into an AVCA third-team All-American. She averaged 3.05 kills per set on .319 hitting, 1.95 digs per set and 0.80 blocks per set with 21 aces while starting all 34 matches. She was the only Big Ten player with multiple matches of 30-plus attacks and zero errors and the only player in the nation with three such matches.
The All-Big Ten performer is one of 30 players named to the AVCA Player of the Year preseason watch list.
“I think it’s obviously such a special honor to be on that, anybody that is on that, and I think it just proves how far that I have come … It’s just a really special honor, and I’m going to just be very grateful for that,” Heaney told Hurrdat Sports.
Purdue will visit Lincoln to play the Huskers on Oct. 17, giving Heaney her first opportunity to play at the Devaney Center as a Boilermaker. That last time she competed in that arena was the 2022 Class B state championship match, a five-set loss to Skutt Catholic in which Heaney terminated 28 times.
“I think playing back at Nebraska is just a dream come true,” Heaney said. “Obviously, I didn’t get to play there the first time we played there my sophomore year because I was hurt. It was just even super cool seeing my team play there, just be a part of that. I think this will be even more of a special experience for me in just that all my family gets to be there just watching me play. Everything like that. Nebraska, as well as Indiana, is such a strong volleyball state in general. So seeing that support for volleyball as a whole, how far it’s come, is just so cool to see. I’m just really excited to play back there.”
Heaney said she’s most excited to play against Bennington product Olivia Muach in the Nebraska match. The two played club together and also competed against each other during the high school season as EMC rivals.
The other Nebraska native at Big Ten Media Day will also visit Devaney Center this season as Papillion-La Vista alumna Mia Tvrdy and the USC Trojans take on the Huskers on Oct. 24.
“I’m super excited,” Tvrdy told Hurrdat Sports. “I haven’t been back in that arena or in that gym since state of my senior year. I know the fans are crazy, I know the fans are loud. I’m just super excited that my family’s going to be there, especially the ones that usually can’t fly out for those games or can’t take those long car rides. I don’t even know if I have enough tickets for all my family members.”
Like Heaney, Tvrdy’s last match at the Devaney Center ended in a runner-up finish for the Monarchs in the 2023 Class A state championship. She began her career at Oregon, where she played in 14 matches and 26 sets as a freshman in 2024, totaling 18 kills and 14 blocks.
Tvrdy transferred to USC for her sophomore season, where she played in 26 matches with 18 starts. The 6-foot-1 middle blocker averaged 2.30 kills per set on .283 hitting and 1.13 blocks per set.
Tvrdy is only heading into her third season, but she expressed excitement about the new age-based eligibility model that grants players up to five seasons of eligibility. She’s studying economics and wants to be a financial advisor or work with stocks when she’s done with volleyball.
“Academics-wise, I’m really excited to get my master’s,” Tvrdy said. “That’s something that I obviously think is super important because you don’t play volleyball forever. But I’m also mostly excited because I feel like I get a year back. I feel like my freshman year probably wasn’t my best year, but now I get a whole extra year to kind of — I know what I’m doing. I’m more comfortable. I’m more confident. It feels good.”
In addition to the two Nebraska prep products present in Chicago, another entered the conversation as Michigan head coach Erin Virtue raved about setter Morgan Burke, a Skutt Catholic grad.
“With Morgan Burke coming into her fourth season, we’re really fortunate to have three returning setters,” Virtue said. “No matter what combination we put together at practice, we are running our offense at a really high level with the three of them. Morgan is certainly on our leadership council. She’s been a leader, a starter. She’s somebody that is super consistent in her demeanor, but also in her delivery. We’re really fortunate of where her level of play is.
Burke’s role has shifted throughout her career in Ann Arbor. As a freshman in 2023, she played in 23 matches with 13 starts, totaling a team-high 488 assists (7.51 per set). She was the full-time starter as a sophomore in 2023, again leading the team with 1,168 assists (9.9 per set) while adding 294 digs (second on the team, 2.51 per set) and 31 aces. Last season, Burke started all 33 matches and led the team in assists again, though she split time with two other setters and averaged 6.54 assists per set.
“She’s certainly capable of running the show on her own,” Virtue continued. “With the personnel we have, we haven’t decided what system we’ll run. I love the fact we have choices and depth. She’s been an amazing teammate in that. She’s been between a 5-1 and a 6-2. Being a setter, you want to be on the court all the time. It’s not easy to have a changeover. It’s like a relay race, have to pass the baton. It’s not easy. It can slow you down. She embraces that as a really good teammate, as do the other two. They want our team success more than just their own minutes on the court.
“I’ve been really impressed with Morgan’s development over time. She’s put in the work. We have to pull the reins if she’s wanting to do extra time. We’re always constrained with not only the hours we’re allowed by the NCAA, but her load on her body, making sure that she’s working smarter as well as she’s gotten older.”
Heaney, Tvrdy and Burke are just three of the many Nebraska prep products making noise in volleyball across the country, and there’s no doubt that the competition they faced in high school played a role in preparing them to thrive at the next level.
“When I was there, and I’m sure now too, there are just so many girls that are committed to large schools, and so that makes high school so competitive, and just really creates a good environment to then be ready for that college volleyball as well,” Heaney told Hurrdat Sports. “Obviously, it’s a step up, but I was a lot more prepared going to Purdue after my high school season and all that entailed, just because there are so many talented people that have come out of Nebraska and it’s a volleyball state for a reason. The fans in Nebraska are unreal, not just for Nebraska volleyball, but especially for all the high schools and for their local players.”
Full list of Nebraska prep products in the Big Ten
- MICHIGAN: senior S Morgan Burke (Skutt Catholic)
- MICHIGAN STATE: sophomore S Malayah Long (Lincoln Southwest), senior OH Alanna Bankston (Millard West)
- NEBRASKA: junior Olivia Mauch (Bennington), freshman Keri Leimbach (Lincoln Lutheran)
- NORTHWESTERN: freshman S Kaitlyn Bodnar (Duchesne)
- PENN STATE: senior OH Whitney Lauenstein (Waverly), sophomore DS Ava Jurevicius (Lincoln Lutheran)
- PURDUE: junior RS Grace Heaney (Elkhorn North)
- RUTGERS: senior DS Kenzie Dyrstad (Papillion-La Vista South), freshman DS Kami Dyrstad (Papillion-La Vista South)
- USC: junior MB Mia Tvrdy (Papillion-La Vista), junior DS Paisley Douglas (Skutt Catholic)
- WISCONSIN: sophomore MB Natalie Wardlow (Lincoln Southeast)
