Post by FreeBall on Oct 2, 2005 20:35:22 GMT -5
dorothymantooth said:
Holloway will play this week and will be a starter if healthy. She is their best setter, and they are going to play to win this season. The theory regarding Holloway playing and/or starting at some point this season looks like it is running out of gas. The following article was in the Saturday Lincoln Journal-Star and indicates that she is likely to redshirt unless one of the other setters gets injured.
I was also intrigued by the note at the end of the article stating that Megan Hodge was visiting NU this weekend. I wonder how the visit went?
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Freshman setter patiently awaits her opportunity
BY TODD HENRICHS / Lincoln Journal Star
Deciding to push up her own high school graduation by a full year was just the beginning to Rachel Holloway’s frantically paced summer.
Holloway went from her highly regarded Front Range club team to training with the U.S. Youth National Team. As captain, Holloway led the Americans to a fourth-place finish in the Under-18 World Championships in China.
From the Orient, Holloway headed straight to Lincoln for a quick orientation with her new teammates before beginning two-a-day practices.
So, what did you do on your summer vacation?
“I had like four nights off the entire time,” said Holloway, who beyond volleyball squeezed in enough time to pick up her diploma, move from her home in Colorado and get signed up for college classes. “It was a long summer.”
The breakneck pace is perhaps the biggest reason why Holloway is the only Husker yet to play this season.
While in China, Holloway first began to feel the effects of tendinitis in her left knee. A week of two-a-days at Nebraska did little to ease the discomfort, forcing Holloway to slow things down for the first time in a long time.
For several weeks, she practiced only sparingly. But those times when she was on the court, Holloway showed enough promise for head coach John Cook to keep open the possibility of her playing yet this season.
“I think she’s one of the most talented setters in the country,” Cook said Friday, noting that Holloway had to beat out several talented setters to lead the highly successful USA team. “When you watch her play, she is lightning quick, and she has a great jump. And the other thing that we love about her as a setter is that last year on her club team, she blocked middle in one rotation, hit in another and has run a 6-2 a lot of her life.
“She’s a great fit for our program.”
But at this point, 12 wins deep in what the Huskers hope is a championship season, Cook said it makes sense to redshirt Holloway unless something significant happens.
With junior Dani Busboom and sophomore Maggie Griffin alternating in NU’s two-setter system, the Huskers have hit at a .324 efficiency facing one of the nation’s toughest schedules to this point in the season.
Busboom, however, was banged up in Wednesday’s win at Oklahoma, landing hard on her tailbone when smacked by a ball midway through game three. After a visit from NU’s trainer, Busboom continued, but Holloway says she’s ready if needed.
“Obviously, I’m excited to contribute any way that I can, but all of this has definitely taught me patience,” she said. “I’m just trying to learn as we go.”
Holloway, who won’t turn 18 until March, has been able to go full- speed in practice for about a week but isn’t yet back to where she was, strengthwise, before the injury.
Tonight, the Huskers (12-0, 4-0 Big 12) face a Baylor team anxiously awaiting the return of injured junior Desiree Guillard-Young. A preseason All-Big 12 selection, Guillard-Young went down with a knee injury in the Bears’ season opener. In all, Baylor (9-6, 1-3) is without four players, all out with injured knees.
Briefly
-- Holloway’s sister, Sarah, now attends Baylor but is not playing volleyball after starting as a defensive specialist last season at Texas.
-- Among the recruits visiting NU this weekend is prep player of the year candidate Megan Hodge of Durham, N.C. Hodge and Holloway were teammates on the Youth National Team.