Mary Kurisch couldn’t fool the people who know her best.

All in all, Aug. 28 was a day Kurisch never will forget. There she was, taking the court as a freshman starter on the Northern Illinois University volleyball team. It had been less than a year since Kurisch was playing for West Salem High School. Now she was competing at the NCAA Division I level on a full athletic scholarship.

Kurisch remembers that day well. Northern Illinois beat Western Illinois in three sets. Kurisch had four kills. She eventually saw that yes, she did belong on the same court as former West Salem teammate Allison Gilbert, now a sophomore starter at Western Illinois.

Her parents, Jeff and Pam, saw someone who still couldn’t quite believe she had come so far, so fast.

“I was very excited (about starting). I knew the pace would be a lot quicker, and I had practiced for it,” Kurisch said. “When I got out there I tried not to act like I was nervous, but my family definitely knew that I was.”

Northern Illinois coach Ray Gooden doesn’t think Kurisch had any reason to feel any jitters.

He knew Kurisch had been dominant as a middle blocker for West Salem. He knew she had 313 kills as a senior en route to earning Coulee Conference Player of the Year honors.

Kurisch’s transition to Northern Illinois has been smooth; she’s fourth on the team in kills with 148 and second in blocks with 63. Gooden discovered during Northern Illinois’ preseason workouts that Kurisch deserved a spot in the Huskies’ starting lineup. At 6-foot-2, Kurisch is a good fit for playing middle blocker. But Gooden saw someone who also could play on the outside if need be.

“In all the years I’ve coached, Mary is one of the few people where I didn’t know exactly what position or role she was going to play,” Gooden said. “But that’s not a bad thing.

“She had done so much for her previous teams that we didn’t know how she was going to fit in here. But we’re really happy with where she’s at right now.”

Of course Kurisch hopes she will play her best volleyball in the coming days. Northern Illinois (13-14, 7-7) has two regular-season matches left — Friday against Eastern Michigan and Saturday against Central Michigan — before starting Mid-American Conference Tournament play on Nov. 17.

It helps that Kurisch has grown comfortable with being in the Huskies’ starting lineup since that day in late August.

“I just feel like I’m starting to understand things more now,” Kurisch said. “Sometimes it feels like I’m behind and I get a little frustrated. But I know that only makes things worse, so I usually get over it pretty quick.”