1. Full Name: Katherine Elizabeth Neff
2. Birthdate: December 1, 1981
3. Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri
4. Major: American Studies with a minor in journalism
5. Most Difficult Class: Calculus
6. Favorite Class: American Fiction with Kevin Gibley
7. Biggest Match of the Season: at Stanford (Nov. 29)
8. How do you mentally prepare for games?: I look over the scouting reports for the opponent which have information on various defenses and on who I will be hitting against. During the pre-game speech by Coach Debbie Brown, I take a few minutes to visualize blocking schemes and hitting over opponents.
9. Your greatest personal athletic moment: Last season’s victory over 10th ranked Pepperdine at home.
10. Your most embarrassing athletic moment: During my freshman year, while warming up against Illinois State, I did not realize that a ball had been caught between my feet and I took the “fall of all falls” right in front of Notre Dame Senior Associate Athletics Director Bernard Muir.
11. Biggest reason why you came to Notre Dame: I have always wanted to be here since I was a little girl.
12. One thing in your life you could not live without: My friends who are always there to chill me out.
13. Hardest part of managing high athletic performance with Notre Dame’s tough academic standards: I tend to procrastinate and wait for a sense of urgency– if it is urgent I can get it done. Time management is key.
14. What are your goals for the season?: For Notre Dame Volleyball to have its best season ever, for both my team and for myself.
15. What are your plans for life after Notre Dame?: I would like to go into journalism. I could see myself working for any type of magazine if and when that happens.
16. The area you are working hardest to improve on: I am working on my hitting and getting my feet to the ball. I am trying to get smarter with my shots and also with hitting around blocks and defenses.
17. Your favorite Irish athletic team other than your own: I played basketball my whole life so I enjoying watching men’s and women’s basketball.
18. Your favorite thing about playing for the Irish: Playing with the girls on my team is awesome. It is an amazing feeling to work so hard with people I care about so much. I also still get chills playing at Notre Dame, where I have wanted to play my whole life.
19. What is the best advice you have ever been given?: My Dad always tells me that if I am good enough to play myself into a slump, I am good enough to play myself out of a slump.
20. If you were on an island and could only have one meal, only listen to one song and be with only one person for the rest of your life, what and who would pick?: For my meal I would have Chicken Piccata. I would listen to Crash by Dave Mathews Band, and I would be with my Mom.
To what do you attribute Notre Dame Volleyball’s early success toward: Our off-season preparation , We had some tough workouts and practices this spring and summer. Everyone on the team has made personal improvements ,and we are coming together as a team. All of our work is finally showing ,but we still have a long way to go.