This week the Clarion sat down with sophomore volleyball player Cassidy Rooke.

Q: When and how did you begin playing volleyball?

A: It started in my middle school days. I decided to play club with some of my friends and the ball started rolling from there. I started playing competitively and here I am now.

Q: How did you come to DU?

A: Both of my parents are alumni of DU, so that had a little factor in my decision. I didn’t want to be too far from home and I’ve been to Denver so many times; it’s just a great city. The coaches are fantastic and I love this team.

Q: How was your first year playing college volleyball?

A: Well the team did really well. We won the conference and made it to the NCAAs. It lit the fire even more. We’re on our way to win the conference right now. Hopefully we’ll make it to NCAAs again and make it past the first round.

Q: How are you personally going to help the team in succeeding and achieving those playoff goals?

A: I just have to focus on and off the court. Practice is such a big deal and how we perform every single game matters. You can never take anything lightly. I think we’re just trying to focus on the little things we’ve learned throughout the season. It’s crunch time now and we’re trying to put it all together.

Q: What do you do to get ready before games?

A: I love getting ready for games. We have dance parties and blast throwback music. We love to hype each other up. Sometimes we’ll play baseball in our locker room before games. We’re just trying to get loose and have fun.

Denver volleyball hosts the Summit League Championships starting on Nov. 20.