The Kubik show gets an encore: Hayden Kubik joins older sister at Nebraska
DES MOINES, Iowa (BVM) — Hayden Kubik has always been around volleyball and has naturally become a single-sport athlete.
“I tried other sports; it just wasn’t my thing,” Kubik said, thinking back to the year she played rec basketball. “I love it so much I don’t need other sports.”
That love has led the 6-foot-2 outside hitter to being the No. 1-ranked recruit in the Class of 2022 from the state of Iowa according to prepdig.com. Kubik has been on varsity at Valley High School since she was a freshman and has made an all-state every year, honorable mention her freshman year and first team every year after that. In 2019, she was even named an All-American by PrepVolleyball.com.
All of this success was not what she originally was going for, but it all became possible because of her love for volleyball, and she wants to take it as far as she can.
“It really just came to me, I guess, that I can do this at a different level,” Kubik said. “At first I really didn’t know what I was playing for, I was just playing volleyball to have fun. … I knew I wanted to play volleyball for as long as I could so if playing college volleyball and playing professionally in the Olympics, then that’s what I want to do because I love the game so much.”
After her senior season with the Tigers, her next stop will be college volleyball at the University of Nebraska where she will be able to reunite with her older sister Madi.
“I’m very excited to play with my sister,” Hayden said.
Along with their mother Renae, who played volleyball at Missouri State University, Madi was another big influence on Hayden’s love for volleyball. With only four years separating the sisters, volleyball was an outlet for their sibling rivalry.
“When I was younger, my sister Madi and I used to be super competitive,” Hayden said. “We had a coach in our basement and imagined that that was the net so we would play for hours, literally hours playing across the coach, playing volleyball.”
Hayden admits that Madi one those matches but she learned a lot from her older sister to the point where when Hayden joined varsity as a freshman she and Madi were a dangerous combination.
“It was the Kubik show basically,” Hayden said.
Now the band is getting back together in less than a year as Hayden will be graduating early so that she can head to Lincoln and play in the Cornhuskers’ beach volleyball season — a decision Hayden made once she had committed to Nebraska.
“I think for me it was just about getting ahead of the game,” Hayden said
The Cornhuskers have a great program and have done an amazing job of recruiting in recent years and Hayden knows this. It’s both an honor to be a part of the group and a challenge, which is why she wants as much time as possible.
“It’s definitely a little nerve racking you’re playing against some of the best girls in the United States,” Hayden said. “Nebraska brings all the best players. It’s very competitive. … I’m excited to get better alongside other Nebraska players.”
It’s something she has dreamed about for a long time. It’s become special to her ever since she began attending camps at Nebraska a few years ago and visiting her sister. The feeling was mutual as Hayden was contacted immediately after midnight on June 15 following her sophomore year, the earliest coaches can begin recruiting.
Hayden received many other offers and even was interested in the University of Wisconsin. However, by June 17, she knew she wanted to be in Lincoln as a Cornhusker.
“I didn’t want to rush anything but I knew in my heart that Nebraska was definitely where I wanted to go,” Hayden said.
Now all that’s left is to officially sign a letter of intent, finish her high school career at Valley strong and then get ready to reunite with her sister for one more year of the Kubik show.
