Natalie Burchesky bent her knees slightly and held her outstretched arms by her side as Kent State passed the ball on the other side of the net.
The Bobcats were just a point away from taking the first set against the Golden Flashes. As the opposition began its attack, fellow blocker Ali Lake shouted.
"Ready? Up!"
Natalie and Lake jumped in unison. Their arms extended above the net while the Kent State hitter took a fierce swing.
The ball hit squarely on Natalie’s hands and hit the ground on the other side of the net with a thud, but that noise was quickly drowned out by the thunderous ovation that followed.
As the sound of cheers from the team roared throughout The Convo, the section of fans behind the team bench, which included both of Natalie’s parents, rose to their feet.
Starting off
Natalie — often referred to as ‘Nat’ — is a favorite among fans, parents and her Ohio teammates.
After redshirting her freshman year, she made her first collegiate start against Kent State on Oct. 6.
Natalie earned a starting role in the game after her teammate Sara Januszewski had to miss a game due to an illness. Natalie would have rather earned the start based on her play, but she was excited about the honor nonetheless.
“It gave me an opportunity to play for the team,” Natalie said. “So I absolutely looked forward to it and worked my butt off the entire week.”
Natalie's stats were impressive, especially in the first set when she led the Bobcats in blocks. But there was one area she clearly led the team — ovations.
She earned one when she was announced as a starter and when she earned that set-clinching block. Practically every time she rotated into the game, there was a louder-than-normal applause.
Coach Deane Webb was cognizant of the fact that Ohio fans and Natalie's teammates were very much rooting for her during her debut.
“It's not, 'Oh, yay. The new kid got a block,’ ” he said. “They're truly happy that one of their sisters and one of the members of their family that they really love and really care for went out and did something special.”
But her teammates definitely weren’t the happiest ones in The Convo that night.
The happiest people in the stands were her parents.
'The best fans in the MAC'
Steve and Bonnie have been to every single of their daughter’s games. And that’s not just the games at Ohio.
In her sophomore year at Canon-McMillan High School in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, she played five varsity sports. Her parents were at nearly every single one of her swim meets, track events, cross country runs, basketball games and volleyball matches.
“We’ve always been involved parents,” Bonnie, her mother, said. “We always wanted to be around our kids’ friends and families.”
But the reason for being at every one of their children’s events has a sobering meaning.
Natalie and and her brother Michael had an older sister, Kathleen, who died when she was just two years old.
Neither Natalie nor Michael had been born yet, but the two parents decided they would spend as much time with their children as they possibly could.
“There’s something about the loss of a child ... ” Steve, her father, said.
With her parents at every event, they've always been a part of her athletic career. So as soon as Natalie found out that she would be having her first collegiate start, she called her parents.
“Okay, Natalie,” her father said to her. “I see three groups of players on the team. The very first group is the team that is announced as starters. Group two is the second string that rotates in throughout the game. And the third group are those who often don’t get in. Are you telling me you’re group one?”
“Yes, dad,” she replied. “I’m group one.”
So just like they’ve been doing since 2015, when Natalie never saw time on the court, Steve and Bonnie were there too.
The little sister
At 6-feet-4 inches, it’s difficult to think of Natalie as little. But to those around the team, she's the little sister of the Ohio volleyball program.
It’s not her size that makes her the little sister, but her personality.
When freshmen on the volleyball team arrive on campus, they are assigned a big sister and a little sister. Natalie was fellow redshirt freshman Katie Nelson’s little sister.
For the two of them, the relationship has grown beyond just checking in on one another in the locker room.
“We hangout all the time,” Nelson said.
Nelson, a middle blocker, just like Natalie, references that Natalie is a “goofball” in the locker room, but an incredibly caring individual as well.
Nelson once told Natalie about her grandmother who taught her how to play “You Are My Sunshine” on the piano. When Nelson's grandmother died, Natalie bought her a music box that played the song.
Her generosity is noticed throughout the locker room — and by her family as well.
“She’s very much a real person,” her father said.
Natalie is fully aware of what she has done for the team in the locker room.
She just wants to do more on the court.
Looking ahead
Webb knows that Natalie is a project.
She picked up volleyball her sophomore year of high school, during her growth spurt, and only played two years at the club level before coming to Ohio.
But with the ability to reach over ten feet on her vertical jump, there is too much ability to write her off as a non-contributor.
The consensus seems to be that Natalie has the physical ability, but her inexperience has led to a lack of volleyball IQ.
That was evident in her second career start.
“She really struggled.” Webb said. “The game was faster, and the decisions had to be made quicker, and she really struggled.”
Since then, she has not started, but she has not given up her hopes of making a big impact on the team either.
Natalie, her teammates and her coaches are certain she will make an impact. If not now, but certainly in the future.
“I think once the volleyball IQ increases, she’ll be a big threat,” Nelson said. “She’s 6-foot-4-inches, she touches 10-foot-4-inches. When she is in the right place at the right time. But once she gets her volleyball IQ up, she’ll be fun to watch.”
For now, she is going to be doing the same preparations she has been doing for roughly a year and a half.
“Seeing my video and what I can improve upon from (past games) definitely feeds me to push forward,” Natalie said. “I’m so excited to get that chance again and have that opportunity. I’m looking forward to it.”
