Reagan Nuss has been around volleyball for as long as she can remember, and she has always enjoyed the game.

“The team atmosphere is a big deal to me, just being able to bond with everybody and winning and being successful and doing all you can to have a part in being successful,” she said. “My aunt was coaching, and Abbi, my cousin, was playing, and Riley, my sister, was playing, so I just followed in their footsteps.”

Nuss has decided to take her game to the next level as she signed a letter of intent last week to play volleyball at Mount Vernon Nazarene University in Ohio beginning next fall.

“When I walked on the campus, it just felt like home. It is very pretty, very modern,” she said. “Practicing with the team, it was like I fit in. It felt like it was my place to be.”

She practiced with the Cougars during the summer and is going as a setter and defensive specialist.

Nuss said she realizes college volleyball is a faster game than high school.

“I’ll use practices as a big get ready for what I will see in games and adapt to the different speed that they have,” she said.

Kendra Mosher is the head volleyball coach at Mount Vernon Nazarene, and she was in attendance for Nuss’ signing.

“I definitely feel that Reagan is going to do really great things for us,” she said. “I actually saw her at a tournament and was just kind of checking her out. I just knew when I watched her play that I needed her on my team. She is such a great leader, such a workhorse. Once I found out more about her, that her team won state, that she has been so successful here at Brownstown, I just knew that I had to have her.”

Mosher feels like Nuss can see the court fairly early in her career, as well.

“She came for a visit, everything went great and am honestly just so excited about her future, and I think she is going to contribute right away, and our team is kind of on the brink of having a really great, successful stretch,” Mosher said. “We were 27-9, so I’m excited to see what else we can accomplish with a great player like her on our team.”

Paige Brenner returns as the Cougars’ senior setter this fall. She has more than 3,000 assists for her career at Mount Vernon.

“I think we have two great people that can contribute,” Mosher said. “What’s so nice about Reagan is that she can play back row, as well. That’s really not common with setters, so that gives her an extra advantage to get playing time. I know whatever position she is playing that she is going to be a superstar. I can’t wait for her to be a Cougar.”

Mount Vernon is a member of the Crossroad Conference along with eight central and northern Indiana colleges.

Jennifer Shade, Reagan’s aunt and volleyball head coach at Brownstown Central, remembers Reagan when she was young.

“She loved the game,” Shade said. “Even when she was little, she would beg me at family gatherings to go outside and toss balls and to play volleyball, so when everybody else was eating dinner, we were outside hitting the volleyball. She woke me up many mornings hitting the ball off the side of the house. She’s just a kid that has had a ball in her hands as early as she could.”

Shade feels Nuss will be a big contributor at Mount Vernon.

“I think they’re getting a good player and a good kid, for sure,” she said. “She was all-state all four years, which is probably something not very many players in the state of Indiana have done, so that is quite an accomplishment.”

She said Nuss uses her quickness to be able to move laterally to her advantage, and that will help her to be able to play libero in college.

Nuss has been a setter since she began playing volleyball at Brownstown Central Middle School in sixth grade.

“I just always tried to talk and be a leader on the court, do everything I could to help the team be successful,” Nuss said. “You always thank your passers for all the good passes you get so you can have that celebration (kill) of your hitters.”

She said she took a lot of pride in setting up her teammates for kills. She had 785 assists this fall, plus 255 digs and 37 aces.

She helped the Braves win the Class 3A state championship in 2019.

“That’s a big deal,” she said. “I go back and watch (the championship match). It’s a good thing. Our community is very supportive of us, and they give us a lot of support throughout the season.”

Nuss, who played club ball for several years, said that was a good experience in helping with her high school volleyball.

“Just being able to know that you can work with other players that you haven’t always played with throughout your times, having to adapt to different players, that helps,” she said.

She played with Cougar Volleyball Club from Trinity Lutheran. Faith Wilder-Newland coached that club team, and they qualified for a national tournament one time.