Mancuso Earns Degree

Lincoln ? Former Husker volleyball star Dani Mancuso was one of 53 Husker student-athletes to receive their diplomas during spring commencement ceremonies on Saturday at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.

Mancuso, a starting outside hitter from the Huskers’ national championship volleyball team last season, earned her degree in communication studies. Mancuso was a four-year letterwinner for the Husker volleyball program, helping NU to a 124-10 record in her career, the most wins in any four-year period in program history.

A three-time first-team academic All-Big 12 selection, she totaled 646 kills, 374 digs and 166 blocks in 113 career matches, as Nebraska appeared in two national title matches and won three straight Big 12 titles during her career.

Mancuso highlights a distinguished 53-member graduating class that consisted of student-athletes from 20 U.S. states and five foreign countries, including Austria, Canada, Colombia, Poland and Serbia. All 23 of Nebraska’s varsity sports were represented by at least one student-athlete in the graduating class, while the Huskers graduated with nearly 30 different majors in their fields of study. While the class was strikingly diverse, 16 native Nebraskans made up nearly a third of the class.

Nebraska’s graduating class included nine student-athletes who combined for 16 All-America awards, including 2006 NCAA air rifle champion Kristina Fehlings.

The spring graduating class of 53 is added to the December class of 31 graduates to bring the total number of Husker student-athletes graduating during the 2006-07 academic year to 84 before summer commencement exercises in August. Nebraska continues to feature one of the highest graduation rates in the nation with an exhausted eligibility graduation rate of 94 percent.