Nele Barber shines
Nele Barber’s first volleyball tryout didn’t end so well. The youth coach yelled, and “I didn’t know what I was doing.” She didn’t go back.
Barber, then 10 years old, never intended to try volleyball again but father had other ideas.
Three years after the initial tryout, her father, noting her sudden growth spurt, suggested she stop by a local gym in her hometown of Berlin. Instead of a gymnastics competition, Barber, a budding gymnast, walked into another volleyball tryout. This time, the coach didn’t yell and she didn’t walk out.
“I like challenges, so I just did it,” Barber said of her second attempt at volleyball. “I still had no idea what I was doing.”
Eleven years later, there’s no doubt Barber knows what she is doing. The 6-foot-1 outside hitter currently leads Long Beach State women’s volleyball team with 133 kills (3.80 kills a set) and 106 digs (3.03 a set). It’s nothing she hasn’t done before.
A year ago, Barber had a team-high 454 kills last season and had 384 digs. She recorded 23 double-doubles and had 10 or more kills in 29 of the team’s 31 matches.
This season hasn’t started out as smoothly as last year’s 25-6 outcome. The 49ers struggled early on, dropping three of their first five matches, but rebounded this past weekend at the LBSU/LMU Baden Invitational by winning three of four matches.
“It hasn’t started the way we imagined or the way we wished it would be, but we’ve played some good teams,” Barber said.
The 49ers, picked to finish second in the Big West Conference this season, are young, with just two upperclassmen. Barber is the team’s lone senior and middle blocker Ashley Murray is a junior.
“We haven’t played together yet,” Barber said. “We have a lot of new people but that shouldn’t be the reason why we aren’t playing together.”
Barber said it’s just a matter of time and matches before the 49ers (5-4) get their season on track. They face a tough challenge Wednesday against No. 7-ranked UCLA (6-0).
Barber came to Long Beach State from Germany via a stop at Marquette University in Wisconsin, where she played volleyball for two seasons. She left Marquette when she settled on majoring in film studies and headed west.
“For me, a film major, this is the best education I could get and who doesn’t want to be in Southern California?” she said.
The volleyball isn’t too bad, either.
“Long Beach has a super tradition. They have always done pretty well,” Barber said.
Barber, who played on Germany’s top junior national teams, said getting an education while playing volleyball is the reason she migrated from Europe. She said playing volleyball full time drove her “crazy” and felt she was missing something in her life.
“When you play professionally in Germany or Europe, they don’t want you to study,” Barber said. “For me that wasn’t really an option. I know that once I’m done with volleyball, I need something to do after and if I don’t have a good education, I don’t know what I would do.”
