Nicklin Hames announced on Sunday that she will return for a fifth season with the Nebraska volleyball team in 2022. Hames is taking advantage of an extra season of eligibility granted by the NCAA due to the pandemic.
Hames has been the Huskers’ starting setter for the past four seasons – leading Nebraska to two National Championship matches – but she will take on a different role for the Huskers next season. After exhausting her eligibility in 2022, Hames intends to stay with Nebraska and begin her coaching career as a graduate assistant for the 2023 season.
Hames has earned All-America recognition in each of her first four seasons at Nebraska. She was a second-team All-American as a junior and earned honorable-mention accolades as a freshman, sophomore and senior. She was also a two-time first-team All-Big Ten selection and was the Most Outstanding Player of the 2021 NCAA Austin Regional, which Nebraska won to advance to the NCAA Semifinals for the fifth time in the past seven seasons.
Hames totaled 4,636 assists in her four seasons as the starting setter, the most by a Husker in the rally-scoring era and the second-highest total overall in program history. In addition to running the Nebraska offense, Hames has been one of the Huskers’ top floor defenders and servers the past four seasons. She has recorded 1,362 digs and 114 service aces, the most of any Husker on the 2022 roster.
In addition to her new on-court role next season, Hames will continue to provide leadership for a Husker team with high hopes in 2022 following an NCAA runner-up finish in 2021. Hames served as a team captain for Nebraska each of the past three seasons.
