Playing for Something Bigger: UNK senior Abby Rose embraces opportunity to compete in Kearney
KEARNEY – She calls it a “leap of faith.”
A late recruit who’d never seen the University of Nebraska at Kearney play in person, Abby Rose took a chance on a place she barely knew. Four years later, that leap has carried her into the center of one of Division II’s top volleyball programs – and to the moment she’s dreamed about since her freshman season.
As the second-ranked Lopers prepare to host the NCAA Division II Central Regional on Thursday through Saturday inside the Health and Sports Center, Rose is savoring a milestone she and her teammates worked so hard to reach.
“It actually gives me goosebumps just thinking about it,” she said. “Hosting a regional has always been one of our biggest goals. To be able to do it my senior year and to know our whole team worked together to make it happen … it just means a lot.”
The Lopers enter with a 29-3 record, fresh off an MIAA Tournament title and a share of the regular-season conference championship. UNK is making its 26th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and hosting regionals for the eighth time in program history – in front of a fan base that has helped the team lose only three times at home over the past four years.
For Rose and three teammates – Peyton Neff, Emilee Lane and Aleena Peterson – it will be their final time playing in this incredible environment.
“The advantage you get at the Health and Sports Center is something you don’t really experience anywhere else at this level. We have a DI atmosphere when it comes to big home games,” Rose said. “People show up. They care. It’s just different here.”
Late Visit, Lasting Decision
Rose laughs now when she looks back on her recruiting story.
“I always joke that I don’t know how I ended up here,” she said. “I didn’t even know UNK was a school.”
Growing up in Lindsborg – a central Kansas community with about 3,800 residents and no stoplights – she knew the MIAA landscape well enough and received offers from several schools. But none of them checked all the boxes.
“It never quite clicked,” she explained. “There was never a moment when I thought, ‘I really want to go here. I love everything about this.’”
That changed when head coach Rick Squiers invited her to Kearney for a campus visit. She made the trip on April 1 of her senior year – “really late in the recruiting process” – and committed just weeks later in early May.
“When you get here, everyone is so nice. The people are different,” she said. “And the volleyball support in the state of Nebraska is completely different. That’s a major selling point, just realizing how big volleyball is here and how much of an impact the sport makes on people all over the state. That’s something I wanted to be part of because volleyball has been such a big part of my life.”
Squiers remembers scrambling late that spring to fill a middle blocker spot. He’d had success recruiting in Kansas, and a 6-foot-1 standout from Smoky Valley High School was the next player on his radar.
“We liked everything we knew about Abby,” he said. “She was long, athletic, really competitive and a good student. But she definitely needed a year or two to figure out how to become a college volleyball player.”
As a freshman, Rose was a bit wide-eyed.
“It was surreal,” she said. “You show up to college and it’s kind of like a culture shock. It’s your first time away from home, then suddenly you step into this gym and there are little girls who already see you as a role model, even though you’ve never met them.”
That connection – to fans, families and the Kearney community – felt familiar to the small-town Kansas native.
“I grew up where everyone knows everyone, so having that community support means so much to me,” Rose said. “It makes me realize that what I do is so much bigger than myself and so much bigger than the outcome of a game. It’s really bringing people together.”
Multisport Mindset
Volleyball was always the dream – the sport her older sister Allison played, the one she followed from middle school through college. But at Smoky Valley High School, Rose excelled in just about everything.
She played basketball, won multiple state titles in track and was named Class 3A player of the year while leading the Vikings to the volleyball state championship match.
After signing with UNK, she posted a personal-best time in the 400 and claimed gold in the event at the state meet. That got the attention of Loper track and field coach Brady Bonsall, who called with an intriguing opportunity.
“He said, ‘I’d be stupid not to ask you,’” she recalled with a laugh. “He did ask coach Squiers for permission first.”
The UNK volleyball coach admits he didn’t expect to add a sprinter to the mix.
“But we could hardly tell her no,” he said. “Now, we have a track-volleyball athlete on our hands.”
Balancing two sports while maintaining a 3.86 GPA in business administration with a supply chain management emphasis – plus an industrial distribution minor – pushed Rose to grow in ways she never expected.
“As a freshman, you come here immature, thinking you’re already good enough to play at this level. And to some extent, that’s true,” she said. “But I think enduring the bumps throughout the season and the bumps throughout my career has developed me into a lot more mature leader and mature person. My dual-sport experience has definitely changed me as a person and as an athlete more than I would have ever thought.”
Force in the Middle
Rose’s progression on the volleyball court didn’t happen overnight.
She had a reserve/junior varsity role as a freshman and slowly earned more playing time while refining some technical aspects of her game.
“It’s been a really interesting journey,” Squiers said. “When you recruit a raw athlete, you think, ‘If we can just fix this one thing, she’ll be a superstar.’ But it’s hard to change something someone’s done thousands of times. Her arm swing took a while. Longer than either of us hoped.”
But when it clicked, it clicked.
By the end of her sophomore season, Rose was a difference-maker. She earned All-MIAA Honorable Mention recognition as a junior and hit a team-best .335 with 190 kills and 58 total blocks. An All-MIAA Second Team selection this season, Rose ranks fourth on the team with 194 kills and second with 72 blocks. She’s also become a valuable asset at the service line.
Then, there are the intangibles.
“She’s a hard-driving ultra perfectionist,” Squiers said. “She’s fiery. She’s competitive. She wills things to happen. She’s become a leader and adopted a little bit of the heartbeat of the team.”
Rose sees it, too.
“This team is very competitive and very driven,” she said. “We’re playing for something bigger – for our families, for each other, for the community, for the little girls who look up to us. We want to show them what’s possible.”
What Comes Next
Rose graduates in May with a standout résumé – NCAA Tournament qualifier, MIAA Scholar-Athlete, dean’s list student, national business honor society member, Kearney eFree Church volunteer, active in several campus organizations.
Her career plans remain open. She’s completed internships with Kearney Winnelson, Parker Hannifin and Buckle’s allocations department, where she currently works part time managing inventory.
“I’m not really sure yet where I’ll go,” she admitted. “I’m open to anywhere.”
No matter where she lands, she knows what UNK has given her.
“You sign with a college, and as an 18-year-old you have no idea what you’re getting into,” she said. “It really is a leap of faith. And looking back, it turned out the best possible way. I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
“The coaches, the teammates who will be my friends for the rest of my life, the professors who impacted me, the community that supported me … being a Loper means more than I ever expected. This place has given me so much.”
Now, with one last postseason run in front of her, Rose is embracing the chance to compete in front of the people who made the UNK campus her home.
bby Rose is a senior middle blocker on the UNK volleyball team. She’ll graduate this spring with a degree in supply chain management. (Photo by Erika Pritchard, UNK Communications)