The libero position came to NCAA Division I volleyball in 2002. At the time, John Cook — then in his third season at the helm of Nebraska volleyball — didn’t see much value in the position.
Twenty-two years later, a libero is the face of Nebraska, the biggest brand in the sport, and is a finalist for AVCA National Player of the Year.
Lexi Rodriguez has etched her name into Nebraska volleyball history.
When the position first came to college, Lindsay Wischmeier (now Lindsay Peterson, Cook’s long-time director of operations) donned the jersey as a senior. Janae Dowling and Amanda McCormick split time in the role in 2003, then McCormick handled it in 2004. In 2005, Nebraska went without a libero as the team was loaded with six-rotation pin hitters.
In 2005, Cook started to take the position more seriously, sliding Dani Busboom to libero after three years at setter. She averaged over 5.0 digs per set. The following year, Kayla Banwarth — who began as a walk-on but received a scholarship later on — won the libero job from Rachel Schwartz midseason and kept it for the next three years.
Lara Dykstra held the job for two seasons before Justine Wong-Orantes arrived and put together the most prolific libero career in program history. Kenzie Maloney and Kenzie Knuckles each played libero for two seasons. Then came Rodriguez.
The senior from Sterling, Illinois, won the libero job as a true freshman and has been Nebraska’s rock ever since. The Huskers led the Big Ten in opponent hitting percentage in each of her four seasons, and she is eight digs shy of Wong-Orantes’ program record of 1,890 digs — despite many teams avoiding her as much as possible throughout her career. She’s been one of the best passers in volleyball throughout her career, posting a 2.37 mark on a 3.0 scale during her four years including a 2.42 as a senior.
“As a coach, I’m like, it’s just some little kid that can’t do anything else, so you make them a libero,” Cook said. “Now we’re learning how important the libero position is. And the fact that a libero is considered for National Player of the Year, one of the four finalists, I think is epic for the sport because you don’t know how many little girls want to be Lexi Rodriguez right now. Again, we always look at how tall and how physical volleyball players are and evaluate that, but here’s somebody who is a huge difference maker.”
Wong-Orantes, currently the libero for the USA Senior National Team, has expressed her excitement for Rodriguez.
“I think it means everything coming from her,” Rodriguez said. “She’s just such an amazing libero and such a sweet person, and she’s someone that I’ve always looked up to ever since I was getting recruited by Nebraska. So to even be in the same conversation with her is just insane to me. She has just been so supportive, and it’s truly meant the world.”
Many have shared Cook’s initial view of the libero position over the years. Offense often draws the headlines and garners the accolades. The other three National Player of the Year finalists are prolific pin-hitters — Pittsburgh opposite Olivia Babcock, Kentucky outside Brooklyn DeLeye and Wisconsin outside Sarah Franklin. Rodriguez has her setter’s vote, though (biased as it may be).
“She’s the best libero that I’ve ever watched play volleyball, and it’s just an honor to get to play with her and to set her passes,” Bergen Reilly said. “A lot of days in practice are pretty easy for me because she passes dimes right on my head. I can tell people that she passes well literally every single day. That would be my case, is it’s great to be a setter off of her.
“But it’s just so cool that she’s even in the position that she is. I know that a lot of times liberos get looked over, and she’s made a name for herself and made a case to not get looked over. I’m really happy for her, and I’m really proud of her.”
A libero has never won the award, nor has one likely ever been strongly considered. Rodriguez is a trailblazer at her position.
“I just want it for her so bad,” Andi Jackson said. “She’s the most deserving person, she works so hard, she’s an amazing teammate and an even more amazing person. To see her win that would be incredible, but even if she doesn’t, it doesn’t take away from anything. She’s had such an impact on the Nebraska volleyball program. She’s going to leave such a legacy, so win it or not, she’s still an amazing person and an amazing teammate, and she’s just so deserving.”
On Wednesday, Rodriguez became just the third Husker — joining Sarah Pavan and Kadie Roflzen — in 50 years of program history to become a four-time AVCA All-American. She garnered first-team honors in 2021, 2023 and 2024 and was a second-teamer in 2022. It took another Nebraska libero great to make that opportunity possible, however, as Cook still had his doubts about recruiting her so many years ago.
“It’s a pretty major accomplishment right there, and again, from that libero position — I always thought she was too short,” Cook said. “I didn’t want to recruit her. But Kayla Banwarth, who was my assistant at the time, basically overruled me.”
Cook said he can remember the moment he pulled the trigger like it was yesterday. Rodriguez attended the program’s Dream Team camp prior to her freshman year of high school. The coaching staff spoke with her after the camp to compliment her for her performance and show their interest, but Cook wasn’t planning to do more than that. Banwarth wasn’t going to leave it there, however.
“Kayla is like, ‘We’ve got to offer her, we’ve got to offer her.’ She’s going into ninth grade. I’m like, ‘She’s too small. I want taller liberos. We’ve got to cover the court.’ I was using some examples of some liberos in other programs at that time that were six-foot liberos that people were using. She goes, ‘Coach, we are offering.’ She’s in my face, pounding on my chest: ‘We are offering her. We are not letting her leave without offering her.’
“So I did. Lexi walked from my office to the elevator, which is about 40 feet, hit the button with her mom — they were getting ready to go down. She stopped, walked back in my office and committed. That’s the story. And here we are. Time goes by fast.”
Four years later, Rodriguez is playing in her final matches at Nebraska. After this weekend, she’ll move on to the next stage of her life — and will leave a legacy that won’t soon be forgotten in her wake.
Cook wasn’t sold on the libero position’s value initially, nor was he confident in Rodriguez’s ability when her recruitment began. However, she changed his mind and inspired countless fans in the process.
After four years of digs, dime passes, wins and smiles, Rodriguez will go down as one of the best and most beloved players in the storied history of Nebraska volleyball.
