of the game. I’m not the same player I was five years ago. I think I (got to where I am) from seeing a lot of volleyball and a lot of different players over the years.”
his summer, from July 22-26, the U.S. will host the FIVB World Grand Prix Finals in Omaha, Neb. Before the six-team playoff begins, Larson-Burbach and her husband, Luke, will hold a barbecue for the entire U.S. team at their newly built house near Lincoln.
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In other words, dinner will be served at the Govnah’s mansion.
The menu will be appropriately Nebras- kan: Ribs smoked by Luke’s dad, maybe some prime rib, mash potatoes, green beans. The basics.
POSITIVE RECEIVABLES: Steady passing skills along with timely hitting have made Jordan Larson-Burbach a key component in the U.S. Women’s National Team lineup.
to get better, and now my serve is pretty hard to handle.”
Evidence of the improvement came dur- ing the gold-medal run at the FIVB World Championship. She racked up 15 aces in the tournament, leading or tying for the team lead in aces eight times, including in the crucial final three matches: a win over Russia that earned the Americans a berth in the semifinal, a three-set semifinal sweep of Brazil and the gold-medal match win over China.
here’s a lot to like about Larson- Burbach’s game. Kiraly talks about how well she keeps the ball in front of her when hitting, seeing where the daylight is, tooling regularly off the exposed outside hand of the blocker. Dietzen says Larson- Burbach is her “favorite left-side blocker to play with” and talks about how solid she is setting up an outside block – straight up and down most of the time, rarely drifting, benefitting from a good read of the attacker that’s part of an overall ability to “read situ- ations better than most players.” It should be noted, too, that while she of- ten downplays her attacking, she led the U.S. in kills three times during last year’s World Championship, including a 16-kill perfor- mance in the win over top-ranked Brazil that put the team in the gold-medal match. Beyond the physical skills, she brings a mental composure to the court that, by all accounts, rubs off on others. Kiraly describes it this way: “She calms a lot of people down who might not be as poised as she is in certain situations.” Dietzen says: “She brings such a stability to the team. I don’t know that it’s something you can see from the stands, but it’s something you can feel on the court with her. She’s a very consistent player, so there’s a trust factor.
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You know what you’re going to get from Jordan and that just brings a sense of peace to the team.”
That stability also comes from her dependability as a passer. It’s not that she never misses a pass, but Dietzen has never seen her “in a passing funk.”
Passing has always been one of her sig- nature skills, probably the signature skill, but she’ll tell you that getting to where she is now has been a progression – that she got better at it when she stopped trying to be too good.
“I think I felt a lot of pressure in the past thinking that the pass had to be abso- lutely perfect,” she says. “It doesn’t have to be perfect. It can be a good pass, even if it means a couple of feet off the net. You can still run an offense with that. Sometimes, when you have it in your mind that you have to pass it perfectly every single time, it’s almost a hindrance. Once I changed that mentality, it kind of relaxed me. I just had to be good for a long time.”
think what strikes everyone in our gym about Jordan is how effortless the game seems to her,” USA opposite Alix Klineman says. “I feel like it’s just embed- ded in her. Not to say that she doesn’t work hard, but some people really have to work on things for them to become habits and I feel like it’s just really intuitive to Jordan. A lot of people envy her for how effortless volleyball seems to her.”
“I
Commenting on that quote, Larson- Burbach says: “I definitely have to work at it, but some things do come easier to me. Attacking is not my strongest thing, but maybe passing is a little bit more natu- ral for me. But in general, I feel like I’m always trying to get better at every aspect
“I’m excited to have the team there so they can just kind of experience Nebraska life,” she says. “It’s nothing spectacular. It’s very simple. And that’s one of the many reasons I love it there.”
LARSON-BURBACH QUICK FACTS Hometown: Hooper, Neb.
College: University of Nebraska (She had the match-winning kill in the 2006 NCAA championship match vs. Stanford, capping a 33-1 Husker season and the school’s first women’s volleyball title since 2000.)
Position: Outside hitter (But earlier in her career, she played setter and middle blocker. “I think that made me a more well-rounded player. I appreciate each position and what they bring.”
Height: 6-1
Awards: MVP of 2015 FIVB Women’s Club World Championship, MVP of 2015 European CEV Champions League. Three time AVCA All- American at the University of Nebraska.
On being an only child: “I was that annoy- ing neighbor, hitting the ball up against the garage door night after night because there was no one to play with.”
On losing her mom, Kae Clough, to breast cancer in 2009: “She fought seven long years, and seeing (how) she took on the disease head on has really been an inspira- tion to me. I’m living the dream and doing things that not a lot of people get to do. To put on the USA uniform is such an honor, and I just take how she fought and try to put that toward the USA spirit and being able to represent the United States.”
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PHOTO: FIVB
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