By Lincoln Arneal
Teraya Sigler has had a few fangirl moments during the last few months.
Her first moment was when Lauren Stivrins walked into her physical therapy center last December. Sigler said Stivrins is a big name in the volleyball world, but she tried to play it cool as they had a few personal conversations and worked out together over the next few weeks.
The next came last week when she hopped on a Zoom call with the Nebraska coaches and was chatting with Jordan Larson. She didn’t know that the Olympic gold medalist was recently named an assistant coach at NU.
“The best player in the world was sitting right here like on a computer talking to me,” Sigler said. “It says a lot about a program, when a lot come back and want to coach, especially under John (Cook), that just speaks volumes of the program and the community. That, for me, was such a green flag, obviously. I was just ecstatic and fangirling, not wanting to make myself sound stupid.”
If everything goes according to plan, Sigler might be the one that people fangirl over in a few years. On Monday, she announced her commitment to play volleyball for the Huskers. She is the third member of the 2025 class, joining setter Campbell Flynn and Keri Leimbach, a libero from Lincoln Lutheran.
Growing up in Scottsdale, Ariz., Sigler played all the sports – swimming, basketball, gymnastics, softball, baseball and football. She shied away from playing volleyball – that was her mother’s sport. But when she was 10, she looked up college volleyball videos on YouTube. The first one she came across showed the Huskers playing in front of a sold-out crowd in the Devaney Center. She felt connected even though she was across the country and knew nothing about Nebraska.
“I was so intrigued,” These players were volleyball junkies and just wanted to play volleyball and everyone celebrated. It made me so happy to watch through a screen. We’re so far away. I’m in Phoenix and they were in Nebraska, but I could feel it through TV. So I just knew when they reached out, I was beyond excited.”
Sigler dove into the volleyball world and developed into one of the best prospects in the nation. As a 6-foot-2 outside hitter, Prep Dig ranks her as the No. 6 overall prospect in the 2025 class and the fourth outside hitter. PrepVolleyball.com has her at No. 20 overall and the sixth outside hitter.
Sigler burst onto the prep scene as a freshman at Phoenix Country Day, where she hit .542 with 5.6 kills per set. She helped lead the school to the 2A state championship and a 29-2 record.
She transferred to Horizon High School this past year, even though her stats took a slight dip to 4.5 kills and 3.5 digs per set on a .370 hitting percentage, the result was the same. Another state title, this one coming in Class 5A. She said she learned a lot from the higher caliber of volleyball and playing alongside Baylor commit Kendall Murphy.
“For me, it didn’t really matter about stats, and honestly, I didn’t have as many kills as I did my first year,” she said. “I’m thankful that transition was actually fairly easy because I was able to use my teammates and create some really good bonds. I’m fortunate enough to be surrounded by great people who helped me grow and thrive.
Sigler got her first taste of international volleyball in May as she was part of the gold-winning team at the U19 PanAm Cup. She played next to Flynn and 2024 commits Skyler Pierce, Ayden Ames and Olivia Mauch.
She will be a key addition as the Huskers will lose outside hitters Ally Batenhorst, Lindsay Krause and Merritt Beason the season before Signer and her 2025 classmates enroll.
While she had a few other conversations with other schools, Sigler has had Nebraska at the top of her list.
She first got to check out Nebraska last summer when her club, Arizona Storm, made the trip up for a summer camp. (Stivirns also played for Arizona Storm and Terri Spann coached them both.) On that trip, she envisioned herself playing in front of a packed house at Devaney and got goosebumps.
“I want to go here. I want to play for John. I want to play for the red and white,” she said. “It’s just been a dream school for a while.”
