After seeing Sara Lein’s first action as a Huskie, NIU volleyball coach Todd Kress knows first hand that the senior middle blocker has more in store than what was seen this weekend at the NIU Best Western Invitational.

Playing her first two years of college at Fairfield University, where Kress was formerly the coach, Lein had her fair share of success as a Stagg.

As a freshman the 6-foot-2-inch Minnetonka, Minn. native was all-conference in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Following up a stellar rookie campaign, Lein topped her first year accomplishments by being named the MAAC player of the year and Rice Invitational MVP.

With Kress taking the job at NIU, Sara decided to transfer with her coach.

Forced to sit out her first year at NIU due to NCAA Division I regulations for transfer students, she looked to make her mark at NIU as a senior. Unfortunately, last year she sat out the entire season as a medical redshirt after suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

After all that, Lein made her first game appearance at NIU this weekend.

“I thought Sara played very well against Texas San-Antonio and her effort was solid against Creighton,” Kress said. “At times [against DePaul] she played well.”

But Kress knows that Lein can play better and has some things to work on, including block transition.

“Coming back from the two years that Sara had off with the ACL and the year she had to sit, I thought it was a great opening weekend for Sara,” said Kress.

In her first match of the weekend against Texas-San Antonio, Lein particularly stood out. With a .688 hitting percentage and no errors in 16 total attempts, she showed what could be in store for the future. However, as a whole for the weekend, Lein felt her performance was misleading.

“I thought I did better than what it showed [in the stat-book],” she said.

While Lein’s match against Texas-San Antonio was inspiring, against Creighton and DePaul she combined for eight errors and a .182 hitting percentage.

Adding depth to the Huskies’ middle blockers, sophomore setter Jenny Bowman is happy to have Lein around.

“I noticed right away, even in practices, that we have a pretty good connection,” Bowman said. “I could sense where she is on the court and it didn’t take me very long to find out that we connect really well and we’ll continue to in the future.”