After his first year as NIU volleyball coach last year, Ray Gooden talks about this year’s prospects.

How will the loss of three to graduation and two would-be-seniors affect the team?

We lost a big chunk of our offense (see page 9) with the graduation of Jen VonderHaar and Tenisha Wilkins. That is huge for us to try and make up for that. We’ve been working hard on that, so the team can understand that a lot of them will have to step it up to overcome that loss. All of our outside hitters will become a lot more effective. They’ll become better scorers.

Is there a considerable lack of experience on the team?

We’re young, but we’re young in the sense of people getting a chance to play and be effective. Tera [Lobdell] has been a starter for a season-and-a-half now, so she has experience, but everyone else really doesn’t have much.

With a 3-10 record on the road last year, is there anything you’ve done to try and improve that aspect?

I don’t know if there is anything that you can do besides taking the players to various locations to get them used to the road. I think it’s just having a level of confidence on the road. When you go on the road you need to dig deeper because you don’t have that natural high that you get when you play at home.

Who has shown the most improvement from last year?

Brooke [Dodson] is doing pretty well right now. When [Amanda] Newlin uses her athletic ability to her full potential, she’s a pretty good player.

How does the incoming class of freshman look and who do you feel will make a impact in their rookie season?

Our setter right now, could end up being a freshman in Kelly DeRoo. One of our middles could be Kate McCullagh, a freshman, and Gina Guide could be one of our defensive specialists as a freshman. All of them will have a chance to make contributions right away.

I know the team is always looking to get more students in the gym. What is your sales pitch to get more fans to the matches?

I think it’s just the excitement of the team. The atmosphere in our gym can be tremendous and it’s not for a long period of time, only an hour-and-a-half to two hours. People get into the matches and hopefully, it’s a circus atmosphere where there’s a lot of activities going on and where fans can interact a lot with players. I’d say come out for one match and you won’t be disappointed.