The high caliber of student-athletes the Nebraska volleyball program is able to recruit is reflected in the program’s five players who have been chosen as the Gatorade high school national player of the year.
This season, the Huskers will have two such players and they both play outside hitter — freshman Harper Murray and junior Ally Batenhorst.
Other Nebraska players chosen for the award were Gina Mancuso (2009), Mikaela Foecke (2014) and Lexi Sun (2017).
The award recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence but also high academic achievement standards and exemplary character on and off the court.
As a result of winning that award, Murray will be in Los Angeles on Wednesday to attend the ESPYs award show and walk the same red carpet as many college and professional athletes.
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Just before she left for Lincoln in January to begin training with the Huskers, Murray was surprised at school with the news she was the national player of the year.
“It was an award that I had been looking at for a while,” Murray said in June in an interview with the Huskers Radio Network. “One of my sister’s old teammates (Jess Mruzik) had won it from Michigan and I was pretty close with her and I knew that was something that I wanted to do when I saw her win it. So kudos to my coaches for helping me, and my mom for supporting me.”
As a senior at Skyline High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Murray had 726 kills and 409 digs, leading her team to a 38-9 record. She had an impressive .409 hitting percentage.
In school, Murray had a 3.62 GPA and was able to graduate early.
Murray volunteered extensively for the Vada Murray Endowed Fund for Cancer Research, named for her late father. She has also served as a lead coach for the Skyline Rising Eagle Volleyball Clinic.
Now playing college volleyball in the Big Ten Conference, Murray will get to play against her sister, Kendall Murray, who plays for Michigan.
Murray credits Kendall for getting her into volleyball. They had a sand court in their backyard.
“I remember being that little girl on the sideline at convention centers (during club volleyball tournaments) that would get yelled at to stop playing because I’d be watching her games,” Murray said. “It’s really cool that I’m going to get to play against her. If she uses her COIVD year it will be for two years.”
Their brother, Deric, plays college basketball at Madonna, an NAIA school in Livonia, Michigan.
The sisters each wear No. 27 in honor of their dad, Vada, who played football for Michigan. He died from cancer in 2011 when Harper was 6 years old.
“I think it means a lot to my mom, too, for her to see that,” Murray said.
Murray is another success story from Nebraska’s Dream Team Camp, where for two days high school players get a taste of what it would be like to play at Nebraska and become friends with players who could be their future college teammates.
Murray came to the Dream Team camp in eighth grade.
“I think that coming here just makes you realize how much they prioritize the women’s volleyball, and the women’s sports,” Murray said. “And a couple of my friends have committed here for 2024, so I’m super-excited for all of them.”
For the past month, Murray has started working with new Nebraska assistant coach Jordan Larson, who has been one of the best players in the world at Murray’s position for the past decade. Murray has looked up to Larson for several years.
“It’s going to be really cool,” Murray said. “I talk to her a lot – which is kind of weird to say now, because before she didn’t know who I was, and now she’s one of my coaches.”
It was actually Larson who Nebraska coach John Cook compared Murray to last fall when she signed with the Huskers — even though Cook is hesitant at making comparisons.
“She reminds me a lot of Jordan Larson at this age,” Cook said. “Just how she plays the game, her demeanor. I just get a lot of reminders.”
Cook thinks that Murray can keep racking up kills even when the blockers she goes against in college are better than what she’s used to.
“She’s quick off the floor. She has a very quick arm,” Cook said. “She has great vision as an attacker.”