KRISTEN CAMPBELL

Richard Dunn

Practice time is different these days for Kristen Campbell, once

the darling of Corona del Mar High girls volleyball who became

arguably the greatest setter in Atlantic Coast Conference history

while playing for Duke.

While Campbell logs 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. shifts on her nursing

externship at UCLA Medical Center, she is comforted with the fact

that she and her younger sister, Kelly, are not only back in the

Southland but living together in Manhattan Beach.

“We never thought we’d get Kelly back. My parents (Bob and Jean)

knew I’d come back,” Campbell said. “They were scared I might meet

someone and stay on the East Coast.”

In pockets of the good ol’ South, a California beach girl like

Campbell can feel a little like a fish out of water. The first person

she met in Durham, N.C., asked: “We have a volleyball team?”

Coming from winning two national championships at Corona del Mar

in 1992-93, it was a bit of a shock for Campbell, who became so

prolific on the court that the ACC has honored her in its 50th

Anniversary campaign.

In March, the ACC will celebrate the 50 top athletes in all sports

from its first 50 years, and Campbell will be a part of it.

“It’s definitely a huge honor,” Campbell said. “But what I think

is even more, and is definitely my highlight, would be the teammates

and friends I met up there. It’s interesting. I’ve been to weddings

all over the country ... playing volleyball at Duke was definitely

fun. I wouldn’t trade that experience for the world, and I got a

really good education, to boot. It’s such a fun school, and playing

in Cameron Indoor Stadium is an amazing place to play, not that we

packed it like basketball.”

Campbell, who first started playing at local volleyball clinics in

the area during her elementary school years and eventually hooked up

with Coach Charlie Brande at the Orange County Volleyball Club,

enjoyed playing against former CdM teammate Kim Coleman and the UCLA

Bruins in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 her freshman year in 1994.

The Atlantic Coast Conference’s all-time assist leader, Campbell

previously was a three-year varsity player at CdM, which captured two

straight CIF Southern Section and CIF State Division I titles, as

well as back-to-back mythical national championships under Coach

Lance Stewart.

An accomplished setter at an early age, Campbell twice earned

All-CIF distinction, before signing with Duke during her senior year

in the fall of 1993.

Following her record-setting career at Duke, where she majored in

developmental psychology, Campbell went to Washington, D.C., for a

year to work in an oncologist’s office, then she “figured out I

wanted to be a nurse practitioner.”

She landed at John Hopkins in Baltimore, where she remained for

two years and worked on a second bachelor’s degree (for a nurse

practitioner). Later, seeking a master’s degree in nursing, she

applied to schools on the West Coast and was accepted at UCLA, where

she’s close to finishing the program.

Campbell, who works primarily in pediatric oncology, is certainly

much more at home now with a 45-minute drive instead of a six-hour

flight to reach her parents’ house in Corona del Mar.

“I really appreciated that time so much,” said Campbell, “because

when I was away, I got to see the whole country and see different

things. It made me appreciate things, like my family and where we

grew up. We were very blessed to grew up there and I’ve enjoyed being

back.”

Campbell, 26, is the latest honoree in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall

of Fame. She has lived with her sister since August, when Kelly

Campbell returned from playing professional volleyball for the St.

Louis Quest, following an All-American career at Colorado.