Kurt Nusterer had his Hawaii volleyball career cut short by a year with one phone call he received last week.
It came with some of the best news of his life.
The 6-foot-9, fourth-year junior from Indianapolis received a job offer from Goldman Sachs as a wealth management professional analyst, which is extremely tough to get. It happened so fast that he hadn’t even told his boss at Bank of Hawaii before he addressed it with reporters before Tuesday’s practice.
UH announced that Nusterer would join ‘Eleu Choy, Kawai Hong, Zachary Thompson and Clay Wieter as players to be honored on senior night Saturday after the fourth-ranked Rainbow Warriors host No. 1 Long Beach State in the second of back-to-back matches to close the regular-season home slate.
“It’s honestly been very freeing having that off my plate, not having to worry about work at all, having that taken care of, it’s a great blessing,” said Nusterer, a finance major set to graduate at the end of this semester. “I can really leave everything out there for volleyball this last month. It’s actually ideal timing in that regard when the team needs to be most focused, I can really lock in and give everything I’ve got these last couple of weeks.”
Nusterer, who has started all but one match this season, is on pace to set a career-high in total kills this season while also averaging more than a block per set.
As much of a no-brainer as accepting a job of this caliber was, Nusterer said it was still a difficult decision to end his volleyball career a year early.
“This really was a really hard decision for me and I hope people see I’m making the sacrifice for a good reason,” Nusterer said.
The Rainbow Warriors will miss not only Nusterer’s production on the court, but his passion and drive for the game that elicits some of the best point celebrations.
He won’t hesitate to get into face of a teammate and yell in exhilaration or engage in a prolonged bear hug.
Three years ago Nusterer was a walk-on who began his career practicing on the “C” side. He put in the time and work to earn a starting spot on a perennial national championship contender.
“I’m just really grateful that the state and the program and the coaches and the team took a chance on me. There is a lot of people who I would say my senior year of high school was more deserving than I was,” Nusterer said. “Worked my way up to the ‘B’ side and then the ‘A’ side and that didn’t mystically appear out of nowhere. That was the opportunity that I was offered by coaches who believed in me, by teammates who supported me, by a community who welcomed me. I stand on a lot of shoulders of some really amazing, humble people to be standing here.”
Nusterer said the perfect ending to his career would be a win on his home floor. That won’t be easy against the Beach (23-1, 5-1 Big West), who are tied for first place with Hawaii in the conference with four matches remaining.
Long Beach State’s only loss this season was in three sets against No. 5 UC Irvine. The Rainbow Warriors swept the Anteaters in two home matches more than a month ago.
The teams have split the last 10 matches they have played over the past four seasons.
“I’m confident we’ve got the pieces we need to walk away with the ‘W’ on Saturday,” Nusterer said. “I’ve seen this place get filled up on senior night. It is the perfect storm so I am really excited for it, but I’m just looking forward to having one last hurrah with the boys.”
The Friday and Saturday matches are sold out, marking the first time Hawaii has sold out consecutive regular-season matches at home since 1996.
Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said freshman opposite hitter Kristian Titriyski is “day-to-day” with his availability after suffering an ankle injury on match point Saturday at Cal State Northridge.
Titriyski leads the team and ranks fifth nationally averaging 4.24 kills per set and he is also tops on the ‘Bows with 34 aces.
Hawaii is 6-3 this season against teams ranked in the top 10 of the AVCA rankings.
RAINBOW WARRIORS VOLLEYBALL
At SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center
No. 4 Hawaii (22-3, 5-1 Big West) vs. No. 1 Long Beach State (23-1, 5-1)
>> When: Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m. (both sold out)
>> TV: Spectrum Sports
>> Radio: 1420-AM / 92.7-FM
