With 10 years of experience under her belt, senior volleyball player Beth Diehl looks to her final season as a time to cash in on success.

I’m really excited at the opportunity to play with the people I have been playing with for so long, she said. We can do as well as we want to this season, and I don’t know if I will ever have this opportunity again.

Diehl said she and her teammates are a close knit bunch, as the seniors Shelby Best, Heather Herdes, Kim Golebiewski, Kelly Parke and Alicia Hansen, as well as Diehl, all live right by each other.

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We all respect each other on and off the court, Diehl said. We understand that what happens on the court and what happens off the court are two different things.

The Indianapolis, Ind. native said she realized the friendship potential her freshman year when the team was travelling back from weekend matches against Drake, Northern Iowa and Iowa State.

It was about two or three o’clock in the morning, and instead of being sound asleep, the whole team was wide awake, she said. The bus driver turned on the warm-up tape for us, and we all started dancing around, even the coaches.

Things changed for me after that, I realized that we could all be friends.

Diehl first started playing volleyball for a club during her junior high years. Originally a cheerleader, Diehl made the choice as a youngster to drop cheerleading to concentrate on her volleyball career.

My parents asked me if I wanted to play volleyball because my sister had started playing, Diehl said. It was always a healthy competition between the two of us, but I got to a higher level of skill faster than she did because I started at a younger age.

Diehl has been an outstanding role model for her teammates, as she was given the Flo Hyman award both her freshman and junior year.

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The award, set up by SIUC volleyball coach Sonya Locke, recognizes a pre-season team member that exemplifies hard work and dedication.

The biggest highlight of my volleyball career at SIU would have to be when I received the Flo Hyman award as a freshman, she said. After two weeks of hard work, I was wondering what was going to happen to me, such as do I belong here’ and did I bite off too much’.

It was really nice to know that my team believes in me.

Locke said Diehl has had bouts with injuries ever since her sophomore season, but has worked to become a well-rounded player.

I just pray that she doesn’t get hurt this year, Locke said.