LINCOLN, Neb. -- She missed the biggest event in her hometown again. But these things happen when its time to be a college volleyball star.Nebraska outside hitter Mikaela Foecke -- whose last name is pronounced FECK-ee -- is from West Point, Iowa, which has hosted the annual Sweet Corn Festival every summer since 1952. Its a four-day celebration of Iowa-ness, with carnival rides, bands, bathtub races, water fights, a horseshoe tournament, a tractor pull, an arts and crafts show, 5K and 10K runs and a parade.And, of course, massive consumption of sweet corn. The whole town gathers before the festival to shuck upwards of 18 tons of corn. So, yes, before she became a Cornhusker, Foecke did a lot of corn shucking.Its pretty crazy, Foecke said. Its a town of about 900, and it multiplies by a lot during the Sweet Corn Festival. Theres lots of visitors, and all the family members who dont live in West Point anymore come back for it. Its basically a big reunion.However, this years festival was held Aug. 11-14, and defending national champion Nebraska had started volleyball practice. So, like last year, Foecke had to rely on reports from her mom about how things went.She lets me know who shes seen, who came home, who was the Sweet Corn Festival queen, Foecke said.The athletic queen of West Point already had been crowned, though, and her reign is ongoing. Foecke came to Lincoln in 2015 as one of the countrys most coveted recruits. She showed a knack for the big points early on, and that carried all the way through the national championship match in December.Foecke had 19 kills in a sweep of Texas in front of an NCAA-record crowd of 17,561 mostly red-clad Husker fans in Omaha, Nebraska. She was named the most outstanding player of the volleyball championship.I just love the big moments; Im not going to lie, Foecke said. When you hear the fans screaming, and you want that point so bad for your team, and you know the games on the line, Im not going to let my teammates down.You have to go after it and play fearlessly. I hope thats the mentality I have, and a lot of that is attributed to my teammates. Because you cant swing fearlessly if you dont believe your teammates are going to have your back.So how many times has she seen that championship match, or highlights of it?None, she said, smiling. I think that if I re-watched it, it wouldnt be as good as it is in my mind.But every athlete probably has that one game where he or she can always pull from that. The national championship -- just the feeling of the crowd and the way we all played together -- is something I want to work for every game.We can assure her if she ever does watch the final, it will be really good. Nebraska avenged a 3-2 loss to Texas near the start of the 2015 season. It was shortly after that early-September defeat, in fact, that Nebraska coach John Cook made two key position changes. He switched All-American Kadie Rolfzen to the right side, and put Foecke on the left.Kadies twin, Amber, already had changed from outside hitter her first two seasons to middle blocker for 2015, so there was a lot riding on everyone adapting well to reach their stated goal of an NCAA title.I think we continued to get better all season, but we didnt make it click until after those two losses at home to Minnesota and Wisconsin, Foecke said, referencing back-to-back defeats at the Devaney Center on Oct. 23-24. Then it was like, OK, weve got to kick this into gear if we really want to make our words reality. We worked harder than we had before. We started getting to know each other, not just the obvious things, but the deeper things.She means the Huskers truly started to understand the complexities of their strengths and weaknesses, and the best ways to complement each other. They didnt lose another match, closing out the season winning 16 in a row.With so much back -- including the Rolfzens, Foecke and setter Kelly Hunter -- plus key additions both from transfers and the freshman class, the Huskers are preseason No. 1 and have a realistic hope of accomplishing a first for Nebraska: repeating as national champions.The program has won four NCAA titles overall: in 1995, 2000, 2006 and last year. Cook was head coach for the past three. He was pleased with the way Nebraska played in 2001 when trying to repeat; the Huskers made the final four before falling in the semifinals to a Logan Tom-led Stanford team that won the title.The end of the 2007 season, though, was a disappointment. The Huskers were mega-talented, bringing back all their stars from the 2006 championship. Yet they were swept in a regional final by Cal.They were a great team on paper, but they were not a great team when it came to crunch time, Cook said. And thats what this team has been working on and figuring out this summer: How they can be great at crunch time.Foecke, who was second on the team last year in overall kills (386) and kills per set (3.09), should be a big part of that. Hunter, who as the setter knows her teammates pluses and minuses very well, basically says Foecke is so good, shes ridiculous. But Hunter thinks Foecke can be more vocal this season.Foecke is also making the improvements youd expect from a big hitter entering her sophomore year: getting stronger, diversifying her offense, and ramping up her serve receive and defense.At 6-foot-3, she relied on natural ability throughout high school. At Nebraska, shes had access to top-notch strength training, and the results are obvious.Im hang-cleaning and squatting things now that I would have looked at last summer and thought, Wow, Im never going to get there, Foecke said. But its all a process, and each day you keep getting better and striving to work harder.For a kid who showed hogs and always had a daily list of chores, hard work is routine. An animal science major, she wants to be a veterinarian, preferably for large animals. But she probably has a lot of volleyball to play before shes practicing as Dr. Foecke.Shes gotten stronger, quicker, more explosive, Cook said of Foeckes work during the summer. Hopefully, thats going to allow her to go to another level as a player. Cheap MLB Jerseys . By having more great seasons. Manning was the only unanimous choice for the 2013 Associated Press NFL All-Pro team Friday. 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Stanley, a fourth-year business administration student from Charlottetown, scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Dalhousie on Friday and tallied again in a 1-0 win over Saint Marys on Sunday.Mercedes could face their closest qualifying battle of the season so far at the Spanish GP on Saturday after Ferrari closed the gap around Barcelona in final practice. Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton kept Mercedes first and second on the timesheet, but Sebastian Vettel raised the prospect of a closer fight for the front row by lapping just 0.147 seconds adrift of the world champions pace.Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne had ramped up the scrutiny on his already under-pressure team before the weekend by saying he wants them to start winning in Spain and Vettels P3 pace suggests F1s top two teams may be more equally matched this weekend. For the second successive session, Rosberg set the pace - and may have gone quicker than his 1:23.078 had he not been forced to abort his second soft-tyre run when a sensor problem struck on his W07.Despite completing his second run, Hamilton was unable to topple his team-mate again - despite setting quicker times in the first two sectors of the lap.Vote: Which team has the best driver line-up?In fact, Vettel ended the session with the fastest times in sectors one and two, with Rosbergs sector three pace - where the Mercedes was half a second quicker than the Ferrari - making the difference. Revitalised Red Bull were half a second further adrift and, for the first time since his arrival at the senior team, Max Verstappen outpaced Daniel Ricciardo.The Dutchman went a tenth quicker to take fourth, with Ricciardo losing time with a wide moment at Turn Nine. Kimi Raikkonen was only sixth in the second Ferrari, ahead of Williams Valtteri Bottas.After concentrating on a heavier-fuel programme on his first day back at Toro Rosso, Daniil Kvyat was their lead runner in P3 for the first time, finishing a promising ninth for the Red Bull junior team.Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso suggested McLaren could have their best shot at a long-awaited Q3 breakthrough by finishing 10th, with the Spaniard not carrying the intricate front wing which the team tested on Friday. Jenson Button briefly ran the new part again in final practice, before it was taken off again. The Briton, who endured a difficult opening day, finished down in 15th. Whilst sitting down with Martin Brundle in Barcelona, Lewis Hamilton says he has 1000% confidence in his mechanics, after a troublesome start to the season Practice Three timesheet1.dddddddddddd Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:23.0782. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:23.2043. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1:23.2254. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 1:23.7195. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1:23.8166. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:23.1107. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1:24.3568. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1:24.4729. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1:24.55310. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1:24.55511. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1:24.58512. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1:24.62113. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1:24.69514. Romain Grosjean, Haas, 1:24.98115. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:25.05116. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1:25.10017. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas, 1:25.13018. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1:25.37619. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1:25.38320. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1:25.40121. Pascal Wehrlein, Manor, 1:26.09722. Rio Haryanto, Manor, 1:26.251Watch the Spanish GP live on Sky Sports F1. The race starts at 1pm on Sunday, with build-up underway at 11.30am. Or watch the race without a contract for £6.99 on NOW TV. Also See: Practice Three recap and times When is Spanish GP Qualifying? 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