DePaul University Athletics
DePaul Hosts the Huskies
9/16/2002 12:00:00 AM | WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
CHICAGO – The Blue Demons take on Northern Illinois this Tuesday at the DePaul Athletic Center at 7 p.m. Coach Dockstader and the team went 1-3 at the Blue Demon Invitational last weekend. They came out strong against UNLV Friday night but couldn’t hold on as they fell to Oregon and UW-Milwaukee on Saturday.
Black and Blue Demons
DePaul lost senior right side Meg Griffin earlier this season who is out for all of 2002 and on Friday the Blue Demons faced another injury when their other captain, senior Katie Engel was injured in the first game against UW-Milwaukee.
“We did a great job of playing together on Friday. Everybody was doing a little extra to make up for not having Meg,” said Dockstader. “Saturday we let down a bit and after losing Engel, we failed to make up for our two seniors, both of who were putting up great numbers offensively.”
“We were a young team to start with this season and then we lost two of our veteran leaders,” said Dockstader. “We need to continue to get better because there is no question that we’re now even younger and some people are going to have to step up.”
The Huskies
The Huskies are coached by Ray Gooden who started his first year in DeKalb after five years as the associate head coach at Loyola. Success has been the result thus far for Gooden and his crew in the start of the 2002 season. The team’s record is currently 6-3 having placed second in the Best Western Inn and Suites Invitational and having won the Country Inn and Suites Classic hosted by the Huskies, with straight wins over UW-Green Bay, Mississippi State, and St. Louis.
Coach Gooden has watched his seniors lead his team since the start of their rewarding season. Senior Jen VonderHaar has led her team this season having accumulated 114 kills and has also contributed 28 blocks. Also a dominating force in the middle is senior Rena Widboom who has given 88 kills to the huskies and led in blocking with a total of 50 stops. Junior Brook Dodson has added 87 kills to Northern’s offense and led defensively with 85 digs. Setting for the Huskies is senior Jenny Rohren who has given 360 assists to her team’s front line.
