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74 IllustrateD volume 25, issue 1 f With An Edge A fter three years at Purdue, Val Nichol has mastered the "compli- ment sandwich." The skill's not a bump, set or a spike, but perhaps it's just as important for the Boilermakers. Because Nichol's biggest challenge over the years hasn't been her on-court performance as much as her ability to communicate with her teammates. "She can be very blunt," senior KiKi Jones said, laughing. "She's learned how to soften the blow, like a compliment sandwich al- most. That's good. … Like, 'Oh, you're working really hard. But you really need to make sure you're doing this because if that happens in the game I'm going to kill you. But keep working hard and doing a good job.' " Compliment, criticism, compliment. In the past, Nich- ol willingly admits, the bread on that sandwich had been missing. "I expect a lot out of people," the senior said. "But I didn't know how to tell them that without making them feel like they weren't doing anything right. And (criti- cism) just came out; I wasn't able to monitor who I was talking to or how I say it, then how they perceive it. "At times, I would tear down my teammates before I would build them up. Where I've kind of learned that if you build them up, and let them know you believe in them, and then tell them what you want from them, they respond a lot better." It's that maturation that has turned Nichol into one of the Boilermakers' leaders, an ascension that might have been hard to imagine when she came to Purdue four years ago. She was stubborn — and likely to tell anyone what she thought about anything — a characteris- tic that was compounded by feeling that she didn't have a defined role at Purdue. Recruited as a setter, the 6-foot-1 Normal, Ill., native also doubled as an outside hitter. That wasn't what she had signed on for, she reasoned, and boy, she re- sisted. Undoubtedly, she let people know about it. "I was confused on my role," she said. "… I came here and they were like, 'Oh, no. You need to hit outside.' And I'm like, 'OK, well, you're still having me come in for set training, but you want me to hit out- side. What do you actually want me to do? I'm only a freshman.' And they never really had an answer for me, so it was really confusing at first." Nichol's experierence was like a lot of other freshmen have been through the years, Coach Dave Shondell said, showing an immaturity in her inability to accept coach- ing. That, and she wasn't always willing to get close with teammates. Jones says Nichol was friendly with her freshmen classmates and a couple upperclassmen then but was distant from others. "She just wasn't ready for everything that was involved in being a student-athlete at a Big Ten school," Shondell said. "She wanted that, but I don't think she was all the way where she needed to be. "… But she has become a really good leader on our team, a really good competitor. Even though she was a phenomenal athlete and had an ability to be a great play- er, she didn't totally believe that. And every year, you just have seen her go to a different level. Some people come in and they're already there mentally and you don't see Purdue Val Nichol has exceled as a setter and outside hitter, dou- ble-duty she didn't appreciate early in her career.