After a big win against DePaul last Tuesday, the NIU volleyball team will head out to Muncie, Ind. to take on the Ball State Cardinals.

The match-up against BSU will mark the first conference game of the season for the NIU volleyball team. Going into the conference season will be an important transition for the team, and proper preparation will be vital to their success, said NIU head caoch Ray Gooden.

“We have good coaches and good players in our conference,” Gooden said. “You need to know the other team’s tendencies better than you do for non-conference matches.”

Last year, the number of new players brought in to Ball State surpassed those returning, 10 to six. Out of those 10 new players, six were freshmen and four were transfer students. While they still may be a relatively young team, they are also a team that has a year of experience playing together behind them. All six starters from Ball State’s 2008 season returned to play for the Cardinals again this year.

“They are a young but very athletic team,” Gooden said.

Two players from Ball State’s 2008 team in particular are going to have to step up to help lead their team offensively. Cardinals’ sophomore middle blocker Jennifer Boyd was ranked fifth in the overall conference last year after displaying dynamic attack accuracy. With a .313 attack percentage, she led her team in kills last year.

Assisting Boyd is sophomore setter Brittany McGinnis. McGinnis started in all 33 matches as a freshman last year, and achieved 1,245 assists. Her total number of assists per game landed her a sixth-place ranking in Ball State’s record book.

In last year’s conference play, each school was able to scrape one win a piece. One game was won by NIU after four sets, but the other required five sets of play before Ball State claimed the victory.

“Playing Ball State [has] always been a really big battle,” Gooden said.

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