During the recently completed spring season, the NIU volleyball team was missing three players – middle blocker Corinne Walsh, setter Kelly DeRoo and outside hitter Shara Parker.

Walsh and DeRoo didn’t play because of low grade point averages, DeRoo said. NIU coach Ray Gooden said it is “up in the air” if they will miss any of the regular season. DeRoo said she is confident both will be ready when the regular season comes around.

Parker, who will graduate in May, plans to transfer to the University of Hawaii-Hilo. She said even though she will be done with her bachelor’s degree, she still has one year of athletic eligibility left because of a medical redshirt in 2001.

Parker said she is waiting for the paperwork to go through and will play there while attending graduate school. She doesn’t know if she will be on scholarship.

Player arrested

Sophomore libero Megan Sprangers was arrested and given a mini complaint at 11:43 p.m. Saturday for possession of alcohol by a minor.

Sprangers, 20, was in the 800 block of Regent Drive when police found her.

She played in 90 of the team’s 111 games – tied for third lowest on the team.

Spring season over

The Huskies went 5-4 at the Three Wisemen Classic on April 3 at Loyola, which ended their spring season record at 15-7.

NIU’s first tournament was the Huskies Spring Invitational on March 20, where it finished 7-2.

“Our tournament is free to play in,” Gooden said. “There aren’t any referees at the tourney; the players ref their own matches.”

The home tournament was followed by the Chicago Spring Challenge on March 27 in Palos Park. NIU finished the tournament 3-2.

These matches don’t count toward the regular season and are played to give younger players experience.

Notables on schedule

NIU has finished compiling a rough draft of its regular-season schedule for 2004, and some big names appear on it.

In the first tournament of the season, hosted by NIU, Elite Eight finisher Washington will face the Huskies.

Other teams on the non-conference schedule include South Carolina, South Florida, Duke, Northern Iowa, Oral Roberts and Butler.

Zidek represents NIU

Sophomore Marie Zidek will go to Orlando from May 26 to 30 to represent NIU at the NCAA Leadership Conference at the Disney Sportsplex.

She and 324 other student-athletes will interact with each other and learn to build leadership skills, she said.

Each school nominates four student-athletes, and one is chosen to represent the school nationally.

“I am very honored to meet the other athletes like this,” Zidek said. “We are building a big community of student-athletes. It will be good to grow and learn and have fun at the same time.”

-Sports Editor Frank Rusnak contributed to this story.