Just a month into the season, Illinois volleyball setter Diana Brown has proved she is the new commander on the court. After redshirting her freshman season behind former setter Jordyn Poulter, Brown has quickly adjusted to being back on the court.

“Comfortability comes with confidence,” Brown said. “Just getting to play and be on the court is just a process that builds inside of a player. Luckily for me, I got to see how Jordyn led the team last year, but this year, I get to actually go do it on the court. Each week my coaches remind me to be the leader out there and just keep the team going forward.”

While Brown longed to be on the court last season, Illinois head coach Chris Tamas believes watching from the sideline and having visuals of the competitive environment gave her an advantage.

“(Brown’s) just improving with every match,” Tamas said. “She got to see a good one in Jordyn last year. But Brown knows she’s not Jordyn; she has her own style of this. I think for her, it’s just being more comfortable with her skill sets, setting her teammates up with good sets and making good plays on her own.

Brown’s comfortability on the court has increased over the past few weeks, leading up to the Big Ten season, which opened up at Huff Hall last weekend.

No. 18 Illinois fell to No. 2 Nebraska in five sets last Friday but swept Iowa on Saturday. While Brown helped the Illini to a .239 hitting percentage between the two matches, the redshirt sophomore averaged a .318 clip from her own attacks.

“Credit to passers and defenders to put her in position to make good choices out there, whether or not to go for the attack or distribute the ball to someone else,” Tamas said. “Some of those things we work on in practice, but we don’t spend an extensive portion of her learning on that. She’s capable of doing it, and she does a nice job of it when the defense allows it.”

Brown posted a career-high six kills against the Hawkeyes and added four kills against Nebraska.

Besides winning the point, Brown said the biggest advantage of getting her own kills is creating a tougher scouting report for Illinois’ opponents.

“It’s very situational,” Brown said. “It really depends on the pass and how the other team is playing defense and whether I know if they’ll be scouting me. If we have set the middles a few times in a row, and they’ve got some kills, then the blockers on the other side will pay attention to them and not me, so it’s just a back and forth game with the other side of the net. If I take it over in two, then they have to worry about me, the next player, instead of my middle blocker or hitters.”

Brown has veterans on the court with her, like seniors Jacqueline Quade and Ashlyn Fleming, but the setter has already taken on a leadership role for the Illini.

While being in command of the Illini offense is still a new task for Brown, she is no stranger to being a leader.

“As a setter, my position is just naturally one of the leaders,” Brown said. “It’s like the quarterback in football; we run the offense. I knew to come in that I would have to be the leaderm and I don’t think leadership comes with age or a grade. I think it comes from someone who leads by example and instills confidence in each other.”

With her newfound leadership role, Brown knows she has to provide the team with confidence, but she is also working on self-confidence. The Columbus, Ohio, native credits her team for accepting her new role and pushing her every day in practice.

“I really applaud my coaches and my teammates because it’s hard to have confidence by just installing it yourself, so my teammates have really, really helped me out,” Brown said. “They have my back in defense and my blocking and everything that is the team aspect of the game. I think it’s just been a buildup throughout the weeks.”

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