Want to know what happens when you try to impress upon Samantha Naber some of her recent statistics?
By all means, give it a shot. Tell her she is averaging a career-best 2.88 digs per set. And that her average goes up to a team-high 3.71 per set in Big East play, good enough for No. 7 in the conference. And that she has more digs this season already (210) than the totals from each of her previous three. And that she’s finished nine matches this year as Marquette’s digs leader.
The truth is, it doesn’t matter what you say to her, how many times you say it or how many different ways you phrase it, you’ll always receive the same response without fail.
“Like I said, digs, aces, numbers, stats, to me, they don’t matter,” Naber said.
Naber, instead, approaches volleyball a different way — one that has a lot less to do with herself.
“Being others-oriented,” she said. “‘How do you raise others up?’”
It doesn’t take long to see Naber answer that question on the court.
If you keep your eyes on her when whatever hitter she’s behind goes up for a kill, you’ll see her trailing closely behind, her eyes fixated on the opposing teams’ on-net defenders. Get close to enough to the action, and Naber’s screams of “one” or “two” or “go for it” or “hold off” become audible.
Junkies of the sport understand what she’s doing, but those less well-versed in the language of volleyball may not understand that Naber is communicating to her hitter both the amount of blockers that are on the other side of the net, and what kind of hit — whether it be a tip, line-shot, cross-court, etc. — would be best given the situation.
“That helps [hitters] understand where the open spots might be on the court,” Naber said.
“I know specifically Natalie (Ring) likes that encouragement. And I know other players, sometimes I can just be like, ‘Go for it,’ and that just gives them that confidence in that moment.”
It requires her to analyze the set given, understand that specific hitter’s preferred tendencies and account for the defensive lineup all in a split second — and then correctly tell her hitter what to do. It’s volleyball’s version of a quarterback calling an audible at the line of scrimmage.
“We’ve been talking about it in the gym, anyone in the back row — but especially liberos — talking to hitters about what’s open. And that makes all the world, because sometimes, as a hitter, you just can’t see everything in front of you,” graduate middle blocker Carsen Murray said of Naber’s call-outs.
“People who are behind you have more court vision, so that just makes all the difference in the world.”
Right side Ella Foti said the process of becoming more comfortable communicating with Naber wasn’t necessarily the most difficult, there’s a clear difference from the start of the season to now over two months in.
“She’s done a really good job of stepping up and being that commander in the back court,” Foti said.
From Naber’s perspective, just given how tumultuous this year has been for her, it wasn’t easy getting her communication to where it’s at now — something she doesn’t hesitate to admit.
“It was different,” she said. “Definitely difficult.”
It’s been unlike any other.
She spent the first nine games coming off the bench as a defensive specialist. Then she became the starting libero in Marquette’s Big East opener against UConn. Then she moved back to the bench, then back to libero, then back to the bench again, then back to libero — where she remained for five matches — before another weekend of flip-flopping before moving again to a starting role in last weekend’s sweeps over Villanova and St. John’s.
Dizzying to say the least.
All the change meant Naber has spent most of her senior year switching between playing three and six rotations.
“What does that look like in terms of my leadership on the court? I was definitely able to take more of a leadership approach,” she said. “When you’re on the court for six rotations compared to three, you can definitely make a larger impact that way.”
It just so happens that is the area Marquette head coach Ryan Theis thinks she’s grown the most in.
“Her temperament, her personality with teammates, and all that has just really grown and evolved over four years to where she’s comfortable around anybody and anybody is comfortable around her,” he said.
Foti agreed.
“I think she’s just come into her own and really shown her true colors,” Foti said, “and she is totally herself around us.”
That’s something you won’t find on any stat sheet.
This article was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached at jack.albright@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @JackAlbrightMU.