Ex-Sterling volleyball star Lexi Rodriguez thriving as team leader at Nebraska

From the moment she set foot on the volleyball court for the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Lexi Rodriguez has been a fixture at the libero position.

The Sterling native has played in every set since her first match as a freshman in 2021, and has led the team in digs all four of her seasons in Lincoln. In fact, her 1,789 career digs are second in the history of the vaunted Huskers program, behind only Justine Wong-Orantes’ 1,890 digs.

So it’s no surprise that in her senior season, the three-time AVCA All-American – two first-team nods and a second-team honor – and two-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year is one of the team leaders on and off the court.

“They don’t take captains lightly; it’s a really big deal here, and to be a leader at Nebraska, you have to carry a lot of weight,” said Rodriguez, a 5-foot-5 defensive dynamo. “A lot of people look to you for advice, for composure, whatever it is, and so I’ve had to learn how to be able to handle that and help those around me. But it’s helped me a lot in my own growth and my own play; it’s helped me to be outside myself and help those around me.”

Despite logging 447 sets played in 130 matches the last four years, it’s still feels strange to Rodriguez that she’s already in her senior season and is one of the best defensive players in Nebraska’s long and storied history.

“It’s definitely weird, because it feels like time here has just flown by, but I think that’s something that I was trying to get better at each and every year, just being a leader and having a better and stronger presence on the court for those younger players,” said the three-time first-team all-Big Ten honoree. “I think these past three years, really, having liberos come in, I really just want to set a good example for them, so that’s been I think my biggest goal every single year, is how can I make the people around me better, how can I be the best leader for this team. It does feel weird to be the older one, but I’m just glad that I can hopefully have a positive impact on them.”

Rodriguez feels like her leadership has come naturally because of all of her experiences. The AVCA National Freshman of the Year in 2021, she hit the ground running in her rookie season thanks in part to graduating from Sterling High School in December 2020 and spending the spring 2021 semester in Lincoln as a “pre-freshman,” if you will.

She credits the fact that she played from Day 1 as a freshman with helping her understand what her younger teammates are going through. After losing a strong core following her sophomore season, the Huskers reloaded with four standout freshmen who quickly became starters last year, and have also added transfers the past couple of offseasons.

Having been in their shoes – and having been around so many strong leaders when she was younger – Rodriguez was able to help usher in the next wave of Nebraska greats.

“My freshman year, I have lots of stories about us – not just individually, but our team that year went through a lot – so I think having that under my belt and having the experience of playing, starting, having a big role as a freshman, I can kind of use that to help them,” Rodriguez said.

She also says the teammates she has played with and the former Nebraska greats on the coaching staff have been a big influence on her leadership abilities. Assistant coach Kelly Hunter was a three-time All-American and two-time national champion with the Huskers during her playing days, and assistant coach Jordan Larson won gold and silver medals with Team USA at the past two Olympics and also won a title with the Cornhuskers. She is in the Nebraska Athletic Hall of Fame.

“Playing with all these amazing leaders – Lauren [Stivrins], Madi [Kubik], Kenzie [Knuckles], Nicklin [Hames], all those people who had such an important part of Nebraska’s culture and history, even Jordan and Kelly as coaches – definitely helped kind of shape me into the leader and the player that I am,” Rodriguez said.

It’s been an important role the past two years because of the roster turnover. Rodriguez’s experience was even more valuable this year when the Huskers lost their fourth match of the season against SMU in Dallas. That’s a bit of a shock to the system in a program that has a 113-17 record and a pair of national championship runner-up finishes these past four seasons.

This year’s sophomores, too, had only experienced two losses in their college careers after Nebraska’s 33-2 finish last year.

But after that loss, the No. 2-ranked Huskers have found their rhythm. They have reeled off 25 straight wins, including an 18-0 record in Big Ten play, and they’ve done it in dominating fashion. Of their 28 wins, 21 have come by 3-0 scores and five more by 3-1 margins; they’ve only dropped 12 sets all season

In the Big Ten, 14 of their wins are of the 3-0 variety, and Nebraska has lost just five sets in conference play. The latest victory was a 25-9, 25-16, 25-17 win over Iowa on the Hawkeyes’ home court Wednesday night, in a match where they trailed in only one of the three sets and dominated down the stretch in all three; Rodriguez led all players with 11 digs and also dished a pair of assists.

The Huskers lead Penn State by a game-and-a-half in the Big Ten standings with three matches left; they play the Nittany Lions in State College the day after Thanksgiving in a match that could determine the Big Ten title.

“We had a whole new team; it’s kind of different coming off of last year, when it just felt like everything was smooth every single game and we just kept getting better. So coming in, we had transfers, freshmen, we knew it was going to be a new team with different dynamics,” said Rodriguez, who leads the team with 349 digs and is second with 98 assists this season. “I think preseason, we were trying to figure out everything, figure out lineups, find our groove together, all of that stuff.

“We took an early loss, which was kind of a lot to process, but it’s better to take that in the beginning and figure out the causes, learn from it and grow from it. I feel that we’ve come out stronger, we’ve really had to dial in some things and change some things, but overall I think it was good for us, and we’ve been a roll lately.”

That success with a new cast of characters speaks volumes about the culture of Cornhusker volleyball. A program with five national titles, six runner-up finishes and an additional six Final Four appearances just seems to reload and return to the highest echelons of the sport each year.

But Rodriguez says that’s all about the example of those who have come before her, and the effort the team puts into maintaining that legacy of excellence.

“I think it says a lot that we can keep doing this year after year, and it’s something that we pride ourselves on,” she said. “It’s not something that’s just, ‘Oh, we walk in the gym and our culture is just going to be great.’ We have to work on it all the way from January, then people come in during the summer and we have to work on it all through the summer, all through preseason.

“It’s something that you really have to put 110% into, because if you take a day off, it’s going to crack eventually. It takes every single person, it takes the entire staff, but I think how well we’re meshing together and how well we’ve been able to play together just kind of shows how much work everyone puts into it.”

She and her teammates hope they can keep rolling. After coming so close to winning a national championship in her freshman and junior seasons, Rodriguez wants badly to add Nebraska’s sixth title to close out her career with the Huskers.

And she thinks the experience this team gained last year can be the X-factor to get them over the hump next month.

“I can’t explain how much I want to go out with winning it all this year,” Rodriguez said, “and I have so much faith in this team that we can do it.”