For the second time this season, senior outside hitter Mikaela Foecke has been named co-Big Ten Player of the week.
The Huskers’ senior co-captain shared the honor this week with Minnesota sophomore opposite hitter Stephanie Samedy.
Nebraska (11-1, 2-0) opened Big Ten play with four-set wins over Michigan and Michigan State over the weekend. Foecke averaged 4.13 and 2.13 digs while hitting a blistering .400 in those matches and is averaging 3.67 kills and 2.37 digs per set while hitting .337 so far this season.
“She’s killing balls and not making errors, she’s doing a great job blocking and she’s been a really consistent passer for us,” Coach John Cook said about Foecke’s improvement from last season. “She went up 400 points in the performance index and she’s seeing the results of that on the court. She’s just playing at a really high level as an all-around outside hitter.”
Foecke was also-named co-Big Ten player of the Week on Sept. 10 along with Illinois sophomore Megan Cooney and now has three such plaudits under her belt. Cook said it’s still too early to discuss Foecke’s place in Nebraska volleyball history, but the native of West Point, Iowa, is putting together quite the resume.
“Her results and so on have been — I mean, nobody’s won two national championships and been Final Four MVP twice,” Cook said. “But we’ve got a lot more left to play here; we’ll talk about that at the end. The thing I’m most proud of her for right now is her leadership and how she’s leading this group … Her and Kenzie [Maloney] are doing a fantastic job. They’ve got these guys playing really well and together as a team and building up a really deep belief level.”
Foecke wasn’t the only Husker honored by the conference this week, however, as setter Nicklin hames was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week as well. She averaged 10.5 assists and 3.25 digs per set against Michigan and Michigan State and recorded double-doubles in both matches while also serving up five aces.
Hames is the first Husker freshman to be honored in such a way since Foecke back on Sept. 21, 2015. For more on Nebraska’s setter, check out this week’s Conversations with Cook.
Jacob Padilla has been writing for Hail Varsity since 2015. He covers football, volleyball men’s basketball and prep sports. He also co-hosts the Nebraska Preps Postgame and Nebraska Shootaround podcasts for the Hurrdat Media and Hail Varsity podcast networks. His love of basketball can best be described as an obsession and if you need to find him, he’s probably in a gym somewhere watching, coaching or playing hoops.
