Erika Lange is no ordinary freshman.
She might still be asking upperclassmen how to get to Harris Hall, and she could be a little anxious about her first midterms coming up. But on the volleyball court, all comparisons to her class of 2004 mates end.
At 6-foot-3, Lange towers over most men on the Northwestern campus. But guys aren’t alone. Lange looked down on Penn State’s players all night Saturday, racking up 20 kills and 13 blocks against the defending NCAA champions in the Cats’ 3-2 win.
And the Penn State game was hardly a coming-out party for the Cats’ starting middle blocker. Fifteen kills and six blocks against Oregon Sept. 8. Twenty kills, nine blocks in a win over Towson Sept. 15. A Most Outstanding Player award for her Sept. 15-16 performance at the Wildcat Classic.
All this in less than a month in an NU uniform.
“Erika’s a special player,” Cats coach Keylor Chan says. “She has a lot of skills that a lot of volleyball players don’t have. I think her numbers speak for themselves.”
Try 64 total blocks in 12 games, good for second place in the Big Ten. Lange also leads NU (4-8, 1-1 Big Ten) in kills (3.36 per game) and blocks (1.36 per game). And Chan speaks of his standout freshman exclusively in terms of potential. Scary, huh?
“She has the potential to be an outstanding volleyball player — I don’t know how good,” Chan says. “She has the biggest upside of any freshman in the Big Ten. And there are some very good ones.”
As a junior at Sandburg High School in Orland Park, Ill., Lange helped the school win its first state championship. The Chicago Tribune tabbed her first-team all-state as a senior, and Volleyball Magazine named Lange one of its National Fab 50 players last year.
Even with all those accolades, producing in the Big Ten is a difficult task for a freshman.
“Being a freshman, coming in, and being a middle blocker in the Big Ten is one of the hardest things that a volleyball player could possibly do,” NU senior Jennifer Armson said.
Lange has seemingly made that transition effortlessly — the same way she rises high to end a point with a thunderous spike.
“The very first game, we played the No. 1 team in the nation,” Lange says. “The game was so much faster and so much more intense. But there are girls on this team who have played at this level for three years now, and they really helped me a lot.”
Lange’s uniqueness as a player lies in her feet. She’s quick for her size, a trait Chan says makes her one of the elite middle hitters in the conference. Her quickness gets her in position to put away points, and that athleticism is apparent to NU setter Kelli Meyer.
“She’s a great target,” Meyer says. “She’s always where I need her to be, and she can put balls down even if the pass isn’t there.”
Those feet also play a role in getting her above the net to block and re-direct opposing teams’ spikes. That’s the part of her game Lange sees as her biggest strength. NU is third in the conference in blocking behind Minnesota and Michigan State.
“Keylor (Chan) always tells us that the blocker’s supposed to win three out of 10 times,” Armson says. “With Erika, it’s got to be double that.”
Despite all the lofty numbers, Lange attributes much of her success — and the team’s in general — to the unsung work of her teammates.
“Since our team is playing better as a whole, that makes me look good sometimes,” Lange says. “If the passing’s better and the setting’s better, then I hit better.”
Chan also sees Lange’s individual success as a small piece of the team’s development and improvement.
“We play the ultimate team sport,” Chan says. “We can’t hide anyone. But Erika’s a special player. She’s a player that you do build around. She has a chance to be an All-American, an All-Big Ten player, if not this year, then her sophomore, junior and senior years for sure.”