It turns out as she was walking off of the floor of the NCAA volleyball tournament, a former multi-sport All-State athlete from Pella was not quite done competing for the purple and gold in Cedar Falls after all.

A first team Missouri Valley Conference volleyball selection this past fall season, Emily Holterhaus made her debut in a sport she hadn’t previously played competitively since she wore green and white in 2019, suiting up and hitting the floor for the UNI Panthers women’s basketball team on January 4th. Emily scored 11 points and collected a pair of rebounds in a win against Evansville.

Holterhaus had intended to join the team as a practice squad player after completing her stellar five year career on the volleyball court; UNI Head Coach Tanya Warren countered with a spot on the varsity roster.

“Honestly, I never really felt super nervous for volleyball, and I think it’s because I was more comfortable with it,” she said in a postgame press conference. “I played basketball, but that was also five years ago, so I was really nervous coming into the game.”

While Emily is best known during her time with the Dutch as a four-time All-State volleyball player, Holterhaus also earned milestones with the girls basketball team, breaking the 1,000 career point threshold and tallying a school record 838 rebounds, earning two appearances on the All-State basketball squads in her junior and senior campaigns.

There are at least 17 games remaining for UNI this winter season. While another sport is unlikely for the star athlete, it’s also hard to forget that Holterhaus was a state champion on the track in her junior season as part of the 3A title-winning team in 2018 and on the state meet record holding shuttle hurdle relay individual champions as a freshman.