The winning edge is that “extra something” champions are made of. It’s also that “extra something” that separates the best teams from the really good teams and is virtually impossible to obtain.

But the NIU volleyball team has found it. Their edge rests on the shoulders of senior co-captains Kari Niesen and Julie Kreiling-Zinke.

Since NIU is comprised of seven freshmen and three sophomores, Niesen and Kreiling-Zinke have been crucial to providing leadership and guidance to the Huskies this season. The duo’s four years at NIU have added up to valuable experience that they’ve shared not only with the team, but head volleyball coach Pete Waite as well.

“We’ve been here the longest, and when new people came in, they had us to look to for help,” Kreiling-Zinke said. “When Pete got here (three years ago) he also had us to look back to and say ‘what do you think of this?'”

Both seniors have had extremely successful seasons at NIU. Kreiling-Zinke, a 5-9 outside hitter, was named to the All-North Star Conference Second Team for the past two years and Niesen (5-10), also an outside hitter, was just recently named the North Star Conference volleybal player of the week. As sophomores, they were members of the 22-8 NSC championship team and have consistently led the stat charts in both defense and offense.

But Niesen credits the 24-7 Huskie success this season to the amount of balanced talent NIU has possessed and their ability to blend those talents on the court.

“Our whole team is really close this year and gets along really well…that always helps,” Niesen said. “Especially when the team gets along well off the court as well as on.”

The Huskies are now concentrating on the upcoming NSC Championship Tournament held in Akron, OH Saturday and Sunday. It will be the fourth NSC tourney that the two seniors have played together but the first time they will actually be side by side.

“Until this year, Kari and I have really never played on the court at the same time. This is really the first season,” Kreiling-Zinke said. “One of us always had an injury. When one of us was healthy the other was injured.”

With that, both Niesen and Kreiling-Zinke laughed, since the former is just returning from a bad ankle sprain. It’s clear these two seniors are simply taking one day at a time.

“We can’t compare the team we have now to the one we had two years ago, but I think we’re going to do well knowing what we’re up against.” Niesen said.