By Elizabeth Thomas, News Staff

Junior outside hitter Kelly Bacon had a breakout performance last week at the Duke Classic tournament. The Temecula, Calif., native recorded 31 kills, 6 blocks, 5 aces and 31 digs.

“It was a really good weekend for us as a team,” Bacon said. “I think we learned a lot and us battling against them was an important game for us. It’s important for us to move on from that and grow as a team together.”

Coming off last season, when she was named to the 2011 All-CAA third team, Bacon said she realizes how far she’s come.

Like most student athletes, Bacon has a rigorous schedule of attending classes and practices; but this fall she added a tougher element: A co-op. The architecture major is the current Northeastern University space planning design co-op. “It’s definitely all about time management and you realize that you sometimes lose track of sleep because you’re doing your homework, but it all works out and the team supports each other in that sense,” she said. “My co-op is very lenient [with] my schedule and it’s been very nice so far. ”

The youngest of three girls, Bacon grew up playing volleyball.

“I’ve been playing since I was in fifth grade, about nine years. Since both of my sisters played it just kind of ran in the family,” Bacon said.

She said she decided to attend Northeastern not only because of athletics, but also because of co-op.

Though volleyball might not be the most popular sport to attend on campus, but Bacon swears that by attending just one game fans would be hooked.

“People just don’t really get volleyball as a sport, but its such a fun sport and high paced and a lot of fun to watch,” she said. “I would love for more people to come out to games.”

Volleyball’s next match is against cross town rivals Boston College on Friday at 7 p.m. at Solomon Court.