In her first season with significant playing time, Lauren Zielinski, redshirt sophomore right side, has bounced back from injury and shown she deserves to be on the court.

Zielinski missed her freshman season while recovering from an injury to her hitting shoulder, which occurred before her senior season at Marist High School.

Despite missing her final season in high school, the 6-foot-4, Oak Forest native was a three-time letterwinner and earned back-to-back all-conference honors as a sophomore and a junior. She was a huge piece behind two conference championship teams that went 100-20 overall and 35-3 in conference play.

The success didn’t continue Zielinski’s senior season as a torn right labrum kept her from playing. Zielinski is still not sure when the injury occurred, but she thinks overuse and wear and tear were behind the problem.

“Not playing my freshman year probably was good for me because I got to heal my shoulder more and was able to understand more of how Huskie volleyball works out,” Zielinski said. “I learned from upperclassmen [and the] middle and outside” positions.

In 2013, Zielinski appeared in 85 sets, including four starts, but she didn’t really start excelling on the court until this season. She has improved her career high in each major category and has appeared in all 26 matches, including 14 starts.

Head coach Ray Gooden thought Zielinski’s body of work at Marist High School along with her experience and success with her club volleyball team, 1st Alliance, was enough to want to bring her to NIU.

“We felt like she had potential, and we wanted to make sure that her health was the No. 1 thing,” Gooden said. “Our athletic training staff has done a fantastic job along with our performance group to make sure that she not only was healthy enough but strong enough and continues to get stronger.

“She’s worked on the range of motion, she’s worked on her strengthening [and] she’s been very diligent, and by doing those things she’s been able to perform at a consistently positive level for our group.”

Zielinski’s stellar play on the court has allowed her to rank in the top three on the team in kills (186) and blocks (61). She will have chances to add to those totals as three of NIU’s last four regular season matches will be in front of its home crowd.

Gooden said he likes that even though Zielinski was a middle blocker in high school, he’s been able to get positive results from her on the right side.

“I think she has the versatility to do both things,” Gooden said. “She continues to grow and understand her game. It’s neat for her to have positive results.

“I think she’s No. 2 on our team right now in hitting efficiently [.308], hitting over .300, which is a really big number in [our] conference. She does a good job blocking. It’s wonderful to have her, and it’s great to see her continue to develop.”