Larson moves into role of NU's go-to player
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BY TODD HENRICHS / Lincoln Journal Star
In a day or so, they’ll hang the nets and roll out the volleyballs to begin another anticipated season at Nebraska.
Jordan Larson admits she’s a bit nervous.
Nervous? Larson? Why would someone with so much experience, so many accolades, so much talent, be nervous entering her senior season?
Maybe it’s because there are so few experienced players to surround her.
That’s not it, she said, adding: “I still think we have a tremendous amount of talent.”
Then maybe it’s because expectations, at least outside the doors to the Coliseum, are so different from past years. Yes, the final four is in Omaha, but how can a team replacing four All-Americans get there?
“It will just have to be a different way of getting where we need to be,” Larson said.
“Different,” it seems, is the catch phrase for Larson, whose own nerves are only a function of the different role that she is to assume this season.
From the shadows of Sarah Pavan and Christina Houghtelling comes Larson, who although nervous, promises to step onto the practice floor Saturday as confident in herself and as passionate about the game as ever.
“I better have all the self-esteem in the world,” she said. “Because all these people are going to be looking to me.”
Larson is undeniably Nebraska’s “go-to player,” according to head coach John Cook, who challenged her to be in the best shape of her career in order to lead Nebraska through what, on paper, appears to be a challenging season.
Not only does NU have to make up for the losses of Pavan and Houghtelling, both past national players of the year, but the Huskers will also break in a new setter after the sudden departure of Rachel Holloway following last season.
Tracy Stalls, too, is gone, and while NU has a solid corps of seniors in Larson, Rachel Schwartz and Amanda Gates, there will be plenty of opportunities for younger players to step into key roles.
Once practice opens this weekend, the Huskers will have less than three weeks to prepare to face the likes of Stanford and Southern California.
“The seniors have worked a lot with the underclassmen this summer to try to get their skin a little tougher,” Larson said. “They’ve practiced, but in a game, it’s so much different.
“We’ve really tried to prepare them and to make them go above and beyond what they think they can do.”
What is the cap for Larson, who three seasons into her college career can still count Nebraska’s losses on one hand?
She wears one national championship ring and could have two others.
Her freshman year, Nebraska lost in the title match, and last season, everyone had NU playing in the title match until California changed those plans by stuffing the Huskers in the finals of the Madison Regional.
That loss was just the first of many blows to the program. The news that Holloway was walking away came only weeks later. And there was a dust up after Pavan was quoted criticizing her former teammates.
It’s hard to say what hurt more.
“Oh, man,” Larson said, drawing out the words as she pondered the question. “I don’t know.
“Some of the stuff that’s happened, it’s shocking even now to think about. But I think it’s been good for us. It shows how tough we can be.”
That’s true of Larson’s personal life, as well.
Her mother, Kae Clough, learned on Dec. 27 that the cancer that hadn’t shown up on a five-year checkup in November was back.
It’s in remission after six treatments at a Chicago cancer center.
That’s reassuring for Larson, who sought advice in instant messages that she exchanged with staff members there.
“It’s unbelievable how they react to your situation,” Larson said, an uplifting perspective which mirrors her own thoughts entering the volleyball season.
“My mom’s cancer may never go away, but it’s how you live with it. I’m excited for the chance to get out and play.”
Reach Todd Henrichs at 473-7320 or thenrichs@journalstar.com.
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