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In just more than a month, Nicholls State University senior setter Alyse Barclay will represent the Colonels against the best competition that the Southland Conference has to offer in the team’s 2015 volleyball season.
But this past summer, Barclay competed for something even bigger than Nicholls red. She enjoyed the honor of being able to play for her native country.
Barclay competed as a member of New Zealand’s National Team in the 2015 Tahiti Volleyball International Tournament, which took place on the lovely island which is a popular tourist destination for travelers around the world.
Barclay was chosen for the team from a pool of 60 New Zealanders. It is her second time as part of Team New Zealand. She also represented her country during a tournament in Vietnam in 2012.
The Colonel said to compete for her native country is an achievement she is grateful for and will always carry with her throughout her career.
“It’s a pretty special feeling to find out that they want you to be a part of the team,” Barclay said. “I’m proud to be a ‘Kiwi’, so when we were given all of our gear with the New Zealand flag and silver fern, it was an awesome moment. It’s something that only a few people get to experience, so I’m very grateful and will definitely never forget it.”
Barclay found out that she’d made the team in a way that is in tune with the times. She said that she was visiting San Francisco, she noticed that she had a Facebook alert.
“I got a Facebook message from the team’s head coach,” she said.
That message confirmed that Barclay would be going to Tahiti to compete for New Zealand, which competed against the host nation and New Caledonia in the round-robin, three-country tournament.
“Then I FaceTimed with him,” Barclay said with a laugh.
New Zealand didn’t win the tournament, but the nation competed favorably against its competitors throughout the event. Both Tahiti and New Caledonia are sophisticated volleyball nations that had rosters loaded full of professional players.
The competition, plus other structural challenges were the biggest challenges that Barclay said she had during the tournament.
“Both Tahiti and New Cali had hitters that were more powerful that I had ever experienced before,” Barclay said. “They also were extremely good servers, so the first couple of days, we struggled until we got used to them. The thing I wasn’t prepared for was playing on the polished concrete floor that we had to play on in Tahiti.”
But perhaps the biggest thrill of the experience was seeing how excited the country’s fans were about the sport. Barclay said the gym was constantly packed and the fans approached the games with a similar passion level as American sporting fans do football.
“The crowds and fans were one of a kind,” she said. “It’s a small country, but the stands were packed, so it felt like the whole country was at the games. They’re a volleyball mad country.”
So after being battle tested against professional players, the Colonel said she’s already thinking about the future and more specifically her senior season.
The New Zealander said that the past three seasons in Thibodaux have grown her skills, which has allowed her to better compete against top-flight competition like she saw in Tahiti.
Barclay said she wanted to thank Nicholls coach Tommy Harold and the other staff members at Nicholls volleyball for all of their hard work to player progression, because when placed in a tough environment, one is able to see exactly how much their hard work has paid off.
“My coaches at Nicholls definitely helped prepare me and have helped me improve tremendously over the last three years in all areas of my game,” Barclay said. “I’ve improved my setting, serving and blocking since my last tour with the New Zealand team. Being able to get in the gym every day and practice skills over and over again means that I’m constantly improving my consistency and precision, especially with my setting.”
Barclay said the goal is to ride her momentum into a strong senior season with the Colonels – one which the entire team has lofty goals for after 2014’s 10-win campaign.
She said that the tournament has reinvigorated her competitive zest, which Barclay hopes will end with a Southland Conference Championship in the fall.
“This experience has given me the opportunity to play volleyball with a different group of girls, work on my game and, more importantly, it’s given me a taste for playing again,” Barclay said. “I am super excited for August to get back in the gym with the girls to prepare for my senior season.”
The Colonels will open their 2015 volleyball season on Aug. 28 with a road match against Southern. The Colonels will compete at home for the first time on Oct. 6 after a brutal, road-heavy non-conference slate.
Nicholls State University senior setter Alyse Barclay traded her Nicholls red and white this summer for a chance to compete for Team New Zealand. Barclay said the ability to compete against professional players will help her as she prepares for her senior season with the Colonels this fall.
