Texas, Nebraska, and Class of 2026 Recruiting Scenarios
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The Class of 2026 is entering their sophomore year of club. In six months, they will be able to “officially” start their recruiting journey on June 15. Looking at the past graduating two classes (2022 and 2023) with their impact…
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Continue ReadingThe Class of 2026 is entering their sophomore year of club. In six months, they will be able to “officially” start their recruiting journey on June 15. Looking at the past graduating two classes (2022 and 2023) with their impact and even their transfers, it leads me to wonder if top athletes will keep going to top three to top five programs when they potentially might not see playing time immediately. Let’s take a look at some recruiting scenarios of what the Class of 2026 could be facing with some current recruiting classes from 2024 and 2025.
Let’s Talk About Texas
This has been quite a year for Texas volleyball from winning back to back national championships to bringing in some of the top recruits in the country. In the transfer portal the past few weeks they have picked up Reagan Rutherford, a 3rd Team All American grad transfer from Kentucky, Whitney Lauensten the former Nebraska right side where she earned All Region in 2022, and Averi Carlson the Class of 2022 Gatorade National Player of the Year from Baylor. They wasted no time in loading up for a three peat. However, looking at the future of Texas volleyball is looking good far beyond a three peat.
A couple weeks prior to signing day, the top middle in the Class of 2024, Ayden Ames, a Texas native flipped her commitment from Nebraska to Texas where she could have an immediate impact for the Longhorns. But wait – there’s more. Texas has the best recruiting class from the Class of 2025 with four top twenty commits. Abby Vanderwal (1st Alliance – IL) and Macaria Spears (TAV – TX) are currently two of the top three prospects in the Class of 2025 and the top outsides in the country. Callie Krueger, the Austin native verbally to the Longhorns right away on June 15, 2023 where she is one of the top liberos (#19 overall) in the Class of 2025. In most recent news, the top available middle blocker Taylor Harvey (#11 prospect in the country) just gave her verbal to Texas. Texas is SO back (they never left).
What To Watch With 2026s in Texas?
We don’t publish 2026 National Rankings until later in the club season so we can have plenty of time to evaluate the 16s throughout the winter and spring. However, watching the 15s from last year, there are a lot of high level 2026s that are from Texas.
The top two outside hitters in Texas from the Class of 2026 and two of the top players in the country come from Texas in Halle Thompson who plays for Houston Skyline and Henley Anderson who will play for Austin Skyline. These two will have their pick of where they want to go this summer. Anderson is from Austin. Would she go to Texas knowing that there are two outsides ahead of her going into Texas? Same goes for Halle Thompson. We are also seeing the same scenario with another top tier program….Nebraska.. Another prospect is Keoni Williams who was part of a national championship Dallas Skyline 15s team where she was named MVP of the tournament. If she committed to Texas, she would be behind Ames and Harvey (and there are top prospects on the current Texas team as well).
Nebraska’s Outside Situation, 2024 and Beyond
Nebraska has consistently gotten the top outsides in the country each year, but there are only so many spots on the court. This season they had one of the top freshmen in the country in Harper Murray, but also had Lindsay Krause, Ally Batenhorst, Hayden Kubik, and Caroline Jurevicius (mostly a right side). Murray and Batenhorst took the playing time, Krause was in the mix, but had some unfortunate circumstances with injuries this year, Kubik took the back seat, and Jurevicius took a redshirt. Kubik is in the transfer portal, and Jurevicius was in the portal and committed to Penn State within a week after the national championship.
What does this look like for the future? Ally Batenhorst and Lindsay Krause are entering their senior year while Harper Murray has three more seasons. Taylor Landfair, the star outside from Minnesota will be transferring into Nebraska for the 2024 season. Skyler Pierce, one of the top outsides from the Class of 2024 and recently the MVP of the Under Armour All American game will be arriving on campus for the second semester. That’s four elite outside hitters for the Huskers again.
In 2025, Nebraska has another top ten prospect in the country in Teraya Sigler who is right up there with the likes of Vander Wal and Spears. Sigler (#7 Overall Prospect in 2025) out of Arizona actually teamed up with Vander Wal with the U19 National Team. Sigler gave her verbal this past summer to Nebraska and is absolutely dynamite from the outside. She’s athletic, physical, and there’s not many who can hit harder than her.
Thompson and Anderson are on the radar for Nebraska, but enter another top outside hitter of 2026 in Gabriella DiVita out of Michigan (Greater Detroit). She’s been to the “Dream Team” camps at Nebraska and there is also Legacy Volleyball Club connection, the club out of the Detroit area that Harper Murray played for and 2025 Nebraska setter commit, Campbell Flynn currently plays for. Does Nebraska need another top outside hitter from the Class of 2026?
How Does This Impact 2026?
What’s next? There will be conversations between college coaches, club coaches, club recruiting coordinators, and even their own families with these athletes who are 15 and 16 years olds. There are 12 scholarships available for a D1 volleyball program if they are fully funded. However, it goes beyond the scholarship. What is the NIL package that these players can potentially earn? Everyone gets nice gear, all the major programs are flying private, school is paid for – but where’s the cash? The year 2024 will be another wild one where there are still plenty of top players in the portal and the Class of 2026 being real loaded with high impact collegiate talent.