DeKALB | In her first three seasons at NIU, Gina Guide has managed to make a big impression on the Huskies volleyball team despite her small stature.

Already holding NIU records for career digs and digs in a season, Guide is well on pace to build upon them this season, while helping her team make a push for the MAC title.

Guide spoke to the Northern Star Tuesday afternoon about competing, brushing her teeth and defending her 4-foot-10 frame from short jokes.

Northern Star: Looking at your stats through 2005, you have 1,472 digs and just nine kills. Would you consider yourself a one-dimensional player?

Gina Guide: Well from that aspect it sounds like it. It’s great when I do get a kill though because [my teammates] will be like, “how ‘bout that kill” or “maybe we should start setting her up.”

NS: Since you do hold the record for digs, have you ever thought about stopping the game each time you get a new one and celebrating, since technically it is a new record?

GG: [laughing] No. I don’t even think we celebrated when I broke the record the first time. I didn’t even know I broke it at the time. It was after a game we lost and when it ended people were congratulating me and I said, “What for? We lost.”

NS: So it sounds like you are pretty competitive. Does that translate off the court as well?

GG: Oh yeah. When it comes to anything where there is a winner or a loser I am extremely competitive. My whole family is a competitive bunch. If the weather is nice after Sunday dinners we go out and have bags tournaments.

NS: Do you have any superstitions or pregame rituals?

GG: I brush my teeth in the locker room before every game. I don’t even know how it got started. I think it was because I always eat before games and I like to brush my teeth after I eat. But I still do it now even if I don’t eat before the games.

NS: So at 4-foot-10, I’m guessing you get a lot of “short” jokes from friends and teammates. What’s the most annoying one you hear?

GG: It’s not just friends and teammates, I’ll hear it from people I don’t even know. The most annoying one I get is people asking me about driving. Wanting to know if I need a phone book or something else to sit on to see over the steering wheel. That one is getting kind of old.

NS: So do you?

GG: No!

Andy Pruski is a Sports Reporter for the Northern Star.