(Harlan) After a dynamic four year volleyball career at Iowa State, former Harlan superstar Jess Schaben finished up her playing days in the sand at LSU this spring.
Schaben took advantage of an NCAA rule that allows athletes to use a 5th year of eligibility in a different sport. “Beach was a great time. I was really lucky to get another year to play another sport and beach was super fun.”
Unfortunately the season, and in this case Schaben’s career, were cut short when the coronavirus prompted the NCAA to cancel the remaining games. Pinpointing the biggest highlight of her short lived beach volleyball experience is an easy task. “If you’ve ever been to a beach event usually there is not a crazy amount of people there, but we had over 2,000 people when we were ranked #2 and played #1 UCLA. We ended up beating them so that was a pretty memorable night.”
College beach volleyball competitions consist of five pairs and Schaben was on the #2 grouping for LSU. The top rated Tigers were roughly halfway through their season when the season was called off. “That was pretty devastating. We were #1 in the nation, so that was an even harder pill to swallow thinking about what could have been.”
Schaben had the chance to pursue some additional playing opportunities, but she’s ready to move on with the next phase of her life. “I knew coming into the year that this would be my last season playing. Just from a competitive standpoint I was ready to be kind of relax. I’ve been playing since I was so young and I know I was ready to be done with that.”
Schaben’s volleyball career has taken her all over the country and even abroad when she won a gold medal with the College National Team in the summer of 2018. At Iowa State she became the first Cyclone to have at least 300 kills all four seasons.
She’s landed a high school teaching job in Nebraska where she’ll be able to watch her fiance and fellow Harlan star Will Lansman play football for the University of Nebraska-Kearney.
