2016 AVCA First-Team All-American Ebony Nwanebu looked to be a National Player of the Year candidate in 2017, but for whatever reason has seen her playing time hindered over the past five matches.
In those last five matches, Texas has played 17 sets as a team. Of those 17, Nwanebu has appeared in just six sets of action. That includes not recording playing time on the road against a ranked San Diego team and at home against Denver. In the Minnesota match, she played in just one set while she appeared in the final two sets against rival Texas A&M last night.
Part of the fading playing time could be in regards to the emergence of freshman Lexi Sun, a six-rotation outside hitter. Micaya White, another 2016 AVCA First-Team All-American, is also a six-rotation outside hitter for Texas, giving them the edge over Nwanebu – someone Texas just prefers to use in three rotations in the front.
Still, even with Sun and White, Texas started Yasmeen Bedart-Ghani in yesterday’s sweep of Texas A&M – a spot that would lead one to believe Nwanebu, Sun and White could all start since Bedart-Ghani is a fellow outside hitter who Texas prefers to keep in the front row. It’s possible that Bedart-Ghani has surpassed Nwanebu and is also possible that Nwanebu could be a bit banged up, but at this point Texas has yet to release any news in that regards.
Currently in 2017, Nwanebu has started three matches that came early in the season, appeared in seven including 17 sets and has totaled 38 kills (2.24 per set) while hitting .350.
Texas was unavailable for comment on the reasoning behind Nwanebu’s lack of playing time thus far in the 2017 season.
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