Sophomore setter Nicole Drewnick has opted out of the 2020-21 spring season, Hail Varsity has confirmed. She was absent from the team photo shoot on Wednesday but remains enrolled at Nebraska as a student.
As a freshman last season, the 6-foot-2 setter appeared in 29 matches as a serving substitution and back-up to Nicklin Hames. She recorded 10 assists and two service aces. Drewnick was originally part of Nebraska’s 2020 recruiting class before enrolling early last season.
Drewnick won state championships as a freshman and sophomore at Hebron High School in Dallas, Texas, before spending her junior year training with the Brazilian youth national team. She played club volleyball—splitting her time between setter and outside hitter—for Texas Instinct, a program her parents direct.
Without Drewnick, Nebraska still has Hames, a two-year starter and team captain, at setter with freshman walk-on Anni Evans behind her. Evans was a four-year starter at Waverly High School who recorded 3,294 assists and led the Vikings to two state runner-up finishes in her career. She was originally committed to Colorado State but decided to enroll at Nebraska as a walk-on in July of 2019.
Kennedi Orr, a member of the highly-touted 2021 recruiting class and the top-ranked recruit in the country, is on campus as an early enrollee but is recovering from a torn ACL suffered during her senior season at Eagan High School in Minnesota. She would not be eligible to participate this season even if she were healthy, but early enrollees can take part in practice.
The Huskers head into the season with 14 eligible players. The fifth-ranked Huskers head to Indiana next Friday to open the season.