s if getting swept on consecutive days wasn’t bad enough for the NIU volleyball team, an injury to middle blocker Jen VonderHaar made it worse.

VonderHaar, who leads the team in hitting percentage, and was first in total kills before the weekend, is day-to-day with a slight tear in her right rotator cuff.

The senior middle blocker played in the first game of the match against Marshall Friday night before exiting with the injury.

She finished the game with no kills, three errors, and a hitting percentage of -.600.

“It’s a lot more stressful to sit on the bench than it is to play in the game, I found out,” VonderHaar said.

Filling in for VonderHaar was junior transfer Alex Hofmann who had seven kills on Friday night and six on Saturday. She also compiled hitting percentages of over .300 in each of the matches.

Teammate Tera Lobdell expressed her feelings, saying that VonderHaar was missed, but was filled in for nicely by Hofmann.

“She’s one of our big offensive threats and was missed,” Lobdell said of VonderHaar. “I think Alex did a great job of stepping in there and not making it a huge difference that she was gone.”

NIU coach Ray Gooden also felt the loss of VonderHaar, but felt it presented an opportunity for someone else.

“Other people have to step up,” Gooden said. “We keep talking about how VonderHaar is consistent, VonderHaar is consistent, VonderHaar is consistent. Now VonderHaar’s gone. So, other people have to step up and make a difference.

“We need to make up for all those kills that VonderHaar brings us. It’s like losing a basketball player that scores 21 points. You need to find ways to replace what’s missing.”

VonderHaar is fifth in the MAC in hitting percentage.