There was no welcome party. No banners were put up. No celebration of any kind.

For Mandi Caputo, her “Welcome to DeKalb” came in a different form — a toad.

Caputo was coming back from class to her apartment and there the toad sat, all brown and warty. Most people would have brushed it off because hey, it’s a toad.

But not Caputo.

“I was scared of it,” Caputo said. “I’d never seen a toad before. We don’t get animals like that in the city.”

For the sophomore setter, it was a whole new experience. First, she had to get used to a whole new volleyball team. Now she had to get used to toads.

Born and raised in Chicago, it only made sense for her to stay in Chicago and go to DePaul.

After receiving a medical redshirt when she broke a finger her freshman year, Caputo lead the Blue Demons in assists and service aces the next year.

Caputo was performing, but problems with her team left her unhappy.

Then she received a call from her best friend, NIU outsider hitter Laura Baetzel.

Where most best friends would console their friends, tell them things are going to get better, Baetzel had a different message.

“She called me and told me they didn’t have a setter,” Caputo said. “Then she told me to transfer [to NIU].”

Baetzel and Caputo have been best friends since first grade and played together in the Lions Volleyball Club. So when Baetzel told her to transfer, Caputo listened.

And so far this season, the plan has worked well. Caputo is fifth in the MAC in assists per game with 11.5. She has posted the most assists in a match and in a five-game match and the second highest in a three-game match.

“She’s working her way into it,” head coach Ray Gooden said. “As we continue to get better, she’ll continue to get better in the system.”

But while on the court everything has been great, the rest of Caputo’s transfer has been a give-and-take relationship.

She likes having a real college campus, but she had problems with classes transferring over. She likes seeing grass when she’s going to class, but misses Chicago’s pizza. And, of course, she has been listening to more country music.

But Caputo says she’d like to return to Chicago eventually.

But for now, DeKalb isn’t so bad — even with its toads.

Andrew Hanson is the volleyball beat reporter for the Northern Star.