Senior Carrie Blankenship has been playing volleyball her entire life. In what may be her last season of playing competitive volleyball, she must learn to adjust to new ruling.

This season a few rules were rearranged that change the way volleyball is played. Volleyball will now be played under a rally scoring system where a point is awarded on every serve and games are played to 30. Also, any serve that hits the net and goes over will be in play.

Not only does a senior, such as Blankenship, have to adjust to the changes, but so does the rest of the team.

With these new rule changes, emphasis will be put more on mistakes made. In years prior, mistakes cost a team their serve, but this year it will not only cost the serve, but also a point.

“It makes the little things more important,” junior Coley Johnsen said. “Every serve counts. You miss a serve, it’s a point for the other team. You hit it out of bounds, it’s a point for the other team. So, it makes everything count more.”

Johnsen, a defensive specialist, has played under the new scoring system in club volleyball, so she isn’t too uncomfortable with the changes.

This past weekend NIU played their first matches of the season with the new scoring system.

NIU coach Todd Kress believed that the weekend went well and the scoring didn’t affect the outcome of the matches. He sees the new system as giving the underdog the advantage and claims that games will be played faster.

“I don’t think it’ll be that much of a difference,” Kress said. “If anything, the games will be shorter, which I think is good for the game.”

The rules were changed this season because coaches have been arguing for years to change the scoring system to give everyone a chance. This was voted on by the coaches last spring and then was approved by the NCAA.

Thus far, with three matches under their belts, the Huskie players seem to be liking the new system. Blankenship and Johnsen both agree that starting each game out strong is imperative and that the system will prevent blow-outs. Neither see the changes as hurting the game.

“Before it always focused on when you made your mistake, but now it puts pressure on you to sustain focus and play your game,” Blankenship said.

“I didn’t know how much I’d like it at first because I’ve been playing one way my whole life. I’m liking it a lot more than I did initially.”