“Every time Lexi Rodriguez hits the court, magic’s been happening for Omaha,” said the announcer in a Lexi Rodriguez highlights reel that LOVB posted. However, that magic was rarely seen. It’s a shame that Rodriguez didn’t get the chance to create that magic too often. Why, you ask? Well, that’s because the former Nebraska Huskers volleyball star was barely part of the starting lineup for LOVB Omaha.

The libero, who broke Justine Wong-Orantes’ Nebraska Huskers record with 1,897 digs to her name, played mostly as the Olympic gold medalist’s backup in the Omaha roster. Fans didn’t even see Rodriguez make her home debut at Omaha until early March, despite the league kicking off in January. However, Rodriguez’s summer just became a lot more exciting as Team USA has come knocking with a huge opportunity.

Lexi Rodriguez is back in the national team pool after making her senior national team debut at the 2024 NORCECA Women’s Pan American Cup Final Six. However, this time, the competition is even bigger. “Lexi Rodriguez will make her Volleyball Nations League debut this week in Serbia as she makes the roster for Week Two,” wrote Huskers Illustrated’s Lincoln Arneal as he reposted USA Volleyball’s tweet. Along with Rodriguez, middle blocker Brionne Butler will also make her 2025 debut in Serbia. The other libero who will be travelling to Rodriguez is Stanford alumnus Morgan Hentz, and she is a bit of a VNL veteran.

Hentz competed with the USA national team in all three previous editions of the Volleyball Nations League (2022,2023, 2024). Now, whether that leads head coach Eric Sullivan to prefer the Stanford alumnus to Lexi Rodriguez is something that only time will tell. However, while Hentz clearly beats Rodriguez in terms of VNL experience, there’s also something that the Nebraska alumnus has to her name—an honor that proved just out of reach for Hentz.

Lexi Rodriguez earned a historic honor in April

While fans didn’t get to see enough of the rookie pro on the LOVB court, especially during her initial days, that didn’t prevent the college volleyball icon from creating history. In April, the libero punched her ticket into the club shared by sporting icons like Simone Biles and Michael Phelps. “HISTORY WRITTEN! Congratulations to @lexi.rodriguez,” wrote the Huskers Volleyball handle.

Lexi Rodriguez became “the first Husker to win the prestigious AAU James E. Sullivan award!” on Tuesday, April 15, 2025. “Rodriguez joins an elite group of athletes and is only the third volleyball player in history to earn the honor,” they added. Today, the Nebraska University graduate shares that honor with fellow volleyball icons, Lauren Carlini (2016) and Kathryn Plummer (2018). Hentz was a semifinalist in 2020, when Simone Biles and Caeleb Dressel were declared winners.

Even the Huskers’ new head coach, Dani Busboom Kelly, wished the school record-setting alumnus on her epic achievement. “First Husker to ever win this award! Congrats to Lexi!” Kelly wrote on social media. Needless to say, the 22-year-old herself was grateful to the Huskers and said Nebraska Volleyball was the reason she could make history. Now, the libero is on her way to hopefully add another medal to her expanding cabinet.

The Team USA coaches are surely hopeful about the women’s national team’s chances. “We’ve had an incredible group of athletes in the gym so far,” said U.S. Women’s National Team Head Coach Erik Sullivan as per SI. “Our more experienced athletes have done a great job setting the tone and sharing their experience, which has been huge for our younger athletes,” he added. Now, only time will tell if Lexi Rodriguez continues to shine among a crowd of elite volleyball talent.