Those who attend Husker volleyball matches at the Devaney Center this fall might notice a change during lineup announcements. No. 5 is Bekka Allick no longer; instead, fans will hear her full name: Rebekah.
She’s already made the change on her social media accounts, and Nebraska has updated its online roster. Allick said she spent time in prayer over the offseason and decided she wanted to go by the name her dad always called her.
“You know what? I’m kind of sick of playing like Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana, like living this double life,” Allick said. “I was like, ‘I’m just going to go by Rebekah and if it sticks, it sticks. If it doesn’t it doesn’t.”
In addition to her self-reflection and prayer, Allick also had to experience the grind of rehab as a surgery sidelined her for the beach season. Having to stop working out and limiting her movement after the surgery was as big of a mental challenge for the naturally active middle blocker as it was a physical one, but she said the experience bettered her as both an athlete and a person, and she’s glad to be back on the practice court this spring.
“It feels good,” Allick said. “It’s definitely a work in progress trying to get back into volleyball shape and just kind of working through a lot of stuff, just getting back in the system, and also goals I had leaving last season. It’s been good. It’s definitely a grind but it feels good to be back.”
The name change wasn’t the only result of her offseason self-reflection. The forced pause from training also led to a new outlook as Allick begins the second half of her career at Nebraska.
“I think it also helped me just realize how much I’m grateful for the opportunity I do have here in Nebraska and that I’m on scholarship and the fact that someone’s paying for my education and I’m able to go and work out and all this is provided for,” Allick said. “There are not a lot of people my age that have the opportunity.”
Another source of gratitude for Allick has been the past year that she’s shared with her older brother, Josiah, who transferred to Nebraska to join Fred Hoiberg’s program for his final season of eligibility. Josiah was a mainstay in the crowd at Rebekah’s matches in the fall, and vice versa for Josiah’s games during the winter.
“I don’t want him to go,” Rebekah said. “He’s always been a great role model. He’s been really good brother. He’s a good friend. And just having someone like that in your corner, especially so accessible, I think is really rare. Usually most people like that in our lives are a phone call away and it can be really hard. So it’s different whenever you actually get to celebrate with them, like be able to hug him after a really big game, or even a really big loss, and just run into him on campus or in the cafeteria. Just to share those little moments, kind of go through the hard stuff, but also celebrate the good stuff, it’s awesome.”
One of those moments was Nebraska’s upset of No. 1 Purdue in basketball. Rebekah was standing with Josiah’s girlfriend court-side when the final buzzer sounded, and not knowing if she’d ever have the opportunity again, she joined in the court storming.
“I was like ‘I’m taking advantage of this, I’m going to rush the court. Hopefully the security guards will forgive me later,’” Rebekah said. “It was a really cool opportunity to just celebrate. I remember we were trying to find him and people are awesome … They were helping split the sea of people to get to him. And I remember seeing him and his face was just, I feel like ‘lit up’ is an understatement. His eyes were big, veins were popping and he was trying to high-five everybody, and I think there’s a video somewhere. But it was like ‘wow.’ That’s the Josiah I saw growing up, that’s who I saw in middle school, that’s who I saw fighting for his spot in high school, and just to see him on top of the world when they beat Purdue, that was awesome.”
Rebekah was also at Josiah’s side when he walked out for Nebraska’s senior day ceremony at Pinnacle Bank Arena prior to his final home game as a Husker, another moment of immense pride for little sister.
“As someone who’s been looking forward to coming to the university since I was in eighth grade, and then to see him so well received by Husker nation, I feel like my name, ‘Allick,’ is kind of tied with the university, and I think that’s really cool” Rebekah said.
The Allicks have become two of the most popular and quotable athletes on campus, and Rebekah said they come by their outgoing personalities naturally.
“My mom and my dad are very well spoken, but they also have very big personalities,” Rebekah said. “Wherever they end up working at, they’re always well known. And I think a lot of it just has to do with they just kind of give themselves to people. Obviously, here in Nebraska, I think we’re well received, so that’s a good thing. But in that, we’re kind of used to having big personalities in the house.”
Rebekah and Josiah Allick will have another opportunity to represent their family and the state together this summer as Nebraska Sports Council officials announced on Tuesday that the siblings will light the caldron to signal the beginning of the 40th Anniversary Cornhusker State Games in July.
Before that, however, Rebekah will have a chance to suit up with her teammates in front of fans again at the team’s spring exhibition on May 4. She’s proud of the contributions she’s made as a blocker thus far in her career (1.50 per set as a sophomore), but her on-court goal this offseason is to become more of an asset offensively after averaging 1.76 kills per set on .329 hitting this past season. More generally, after coming Allick said her personal goals center on investing even further in her teammates.
“With me as a competitor, I get tunnel vision sometimes about the only thing that matters is winning,” Allick said. “And I realized when you’re at the very top, and when you come up short, it’s like ‘Would I be willing to go through all that again with the same group?’ And I was like, ‘OK, I’ve got to reassess; am I really putting my energy in the right places?’ And so I would say I’m taking a different approach to the season, and honestly, moving forward in my career, just investing more into my relationships with the girls, and just trusting the coaches, diving into film and stuff like that.”
After a memorable 2023 season for herself and her family, Rebekah Allick is looking to reintroduce herself to Husker nation this spring, starting with the spring match in Kearney against Denver.
