The NIU volleyball team is experiencing growing pains, and that is the unfortunate truth to a 2017 campaign where they have yet to win a game though 11 matches.

The team was a dominant force in the 2016 season, but the tides have turned. They were nearly perfect in Mid-American Conference play, going 15-1 and 25-6 overall, eventually losing to the No. 15 ranked University of Missouri Tigers in the first round of the 2016 NCAA tournament.

As we enter the thick of the new season, in follow-up to what is arguably the Huskies’ best season in recent history, fans must question how they could follow last season with a start like this.

The Huskies have started the 2017 season with an 0-11 record. They’ve lost their sets a combined 33-3 over the course of those matches. For comparison, they began the 2016 season with a 7-4 record, and won their sets a combined 23-15.

In their defense, they have had some tough opponents, including No. 22 ranked Iowa State Saturday and No. 14 ranked Oregon Sept. 3.

In a large amount of their sets, the Huskies find themselves trailing by a large deficit early and making the game more competitive during the middle, only to come up short on their attempted comeback. These kind of sequences can be attributed to the Huskies being a much younger, inexperienced team than they were a year ago.

The team lost six seniors from last season, including 2016 MAC player of the year Jenna Radtke. Other than Radtke, the team lost impactful players in Bri Horwath and Mary Grace Kelly.

In the team’s recent stretch of losses, one of Head Coach Ray Gooden’s main reasons for the slow start is the team has simply gotten a lot younger and are in somewhat of a rebuild phase.

Unlike last year’s team, led by six seniors, this year’s team is young, carrying six freshmen on the roster with only three seniors.

“We lost players that had significant moments at some point in their careers and now we’ve got, at times, four-to-five freshman on the floor,” Gooden said, according to a Sept. 5 Northern Star article. “[The younger players] are learning just like the last group learned when they were young.”

Gooden referenced the last group of seniors experiencing, arguably, some growing pains during their time as underclassmen. Unlike the 0-11 start to this year’s group of players, last year’s group of seniors did not experience the same challenges when they were young.

The 2013 volleyball team, a team that included Radtke and that group of seniors from last season, were a respectable 5-6 in the first 11 games, eventually turning it around to finish 19-13 on the season.

Experience cannot be the only factor in the team’s lack of success so far this season.

Other than starting sets slow, Gooden has not provided many thoughts on particular in-game reasons why he believes the team is struggling.

“We have to understand how we approach each event, and each event can be each play, each game and each match,” said Gooden, according to an Aug. 31 Northern Star article. “At a certain point, we [will] finally get an understanding of what we need to do so then we can go out and do it.”

Even with the slow start, the Huskies have talented players on their roster who are primed to have a great career with the Huskies, including freshman outside hitters in Kaylee Martin and Jori Radtke.

Other than inexperience, Gooden said the team needs more offense after getting swept in three games at the Iowa Invitational Friday and Saturday

“We need more offense,” Gooden said. “We need to have more people involved in our offense so we can get better balance.”

There are obviously some particular offensive issues the team needs to pinpoint and try to resolve before this season gets even more out of hand. With the previous success of this team, fans hope they figure it out.

Whatever the reasoning is for their struggles, they’re in danger of following up one of their best seasons with a very disappointing one.