Drew Robertson has had a bad week – that much is obvious, even if she isn’t in a talking mood after practice on Thursday. After a little prodding, the Wildcats’ freshman setter reveals that her problems extend beyond the court.
“It’s been a long week,” she says, quasi-apologizing for her uncharacteristically quiet behavior. “I lost my wallet, melted my key chain to the heater.”
She sighs.
“I’m just wiped out.”
Robertson’s exhaustion is also the result of the three matches the Northwestern volleyball team (6-7, 3-4 Big Ten) has played in the last week, all of which were physically and emotionally draining losses. All three of the teams are ranked in the top 15 – Ohio State is No. 10, Penn State is No. 11 and Wisconsin is No. 6 – but that doesn’t make losing acceptable to the 5-foot-10 Long Beach, Calif., native.
“It’s always tough to lose,” she said. “We’re really going to go at them in the next round (the second half of the season). I’m sure we’ll take at least one of them – no, two of them – down next time.”
Emotional responses like this are the norm for Robertson, so it’s a safe bet that by the time the Cats take the court against Purdue (2-9, 1-5) tonight, Robertson will be fired up and ready to direct NU’s offense again.
Robertson is a true freshman, and she is second-year head coach Keylor Chan’s first recruit at NU. Chan first spotted Robertson, a three-time USA Volleyball/Junior Olympic All-American who led her club team to Junior Olympic titles in 1999 and 2001 (where she was tournament MVP), in his second week on the job.
“I was at Junior Nationals in July (2000), which is the biggest juniors tournament, and I heard some coaches talking about her,” Chan said. “I saw her play one match and I knew she’d be great for us.”
Robertson was not a sure thing for the Cats – she had her choices narrowed down to NU, Georgetown, Stanford and Baylor, and Chan thought that she would probably walk on at Stanford.
“We got fortunate,” Chan says. “We convinced her to give us a chance, and she realized that she wanted everything we had to offer.”
Robertson, who was clearly partial to prestigious, medium-sized private schools, decided after a recruiting trip that she “clicked” with NU.
“The academics are great, and I wanted to get away from California. I liked the team a lot,” she explains. “And the coach.”
The last part she says loudly and with a laugh for the benefit of Chan, who sits within earshot.
“She’s great,” Chan says simply. “She has a lot to learn, but we hit a home run with Drew.”
When Robertson arrived for practice in August, junior Kelli Meyer was the Cats starting setter. The two went head-to-head for the starting position, and in the end it was the freshman who won out. Meyer, being 6-foot-2, quiet and capable of pounding the ball, quickly found a new position as right side hitter, where she now starts.
The position switch, along with a lack of seniors on the roster, has made leadership a tricky issue for the Cats.
And having the lone true freshman fill the position that naturally assumes that leadership role further complicates the situation.
“We don’t really have one leader,” junior middle blocker Sarah Ballog says. “We all look to each other to do different things on the court. I think part of that is not having any seniors, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing.”
Robertson says her youth is a non-factor, and she sees herself fitting the leadership role well.
“The setter definitely has to be vocal,” Robertson says, cracking a smile. “I’m a loud person.”
Robertson also shows the most emotion – particularly when NU is losing.
“She brings a lot of spunk to the court,” says injured outside hitter Lindsay Pavlik. “Her fire on the court is good for the most part.”
Pavlik and Robertson are longtime competitors – Robertson’s coach at Long Beach Poly High School was Pavlik’s club coach. The two Southern California standouts became rivals of sorts, and were constantly in direct opposition with each other in high school.
“I thought she was nice and all,” Pavlik says of Robertson. “But for me (playing against her) she was kind of annoying. It was like, ‘Who is this little girl?'”
The pair dropped their rivalry this summer when they became teammates, and Pavlik even started helping Robertson lift weights.
“I took her under my wing,” Pavlik jokes.
Robertson seems to be adapting well to Evanston thus far. Her classes are fine – “Calc is hard, but I like my seminar, and Spanish is good” – and she is surviving the weather change. Flexibility is a component in Robertson’s game as well: She blocks well for a setter and passes the ball exceptionally.
The only stipulation on her passing, she says, is that if she makes the pass, she wants to be set up for a spike – and the argument for Robertson as a hitter would have to be her confidence.
“I always believe that I’m going to get a kill,” she says. “I want the ball, no matter what.”
