As their season gets underway this fall, the Binghamton University volleyball team will sport all new uniforms. But wearing new things is nothing new for senior middle hitter Jacki Kane, who spent all summer sporting a different getup ‘ a sharp, television-ready suit as an intern for CBS News.

The 6-foot-1-inch Colorado native, a mainstay of the starting lineup for the team’s three straight postseason appearances, will be one of the familiar faces on a squad that features a stable of key freshmen ‘ but even her on-court role will change.

‘I want to go up and jump with everything within me for every block,’ she said. ‘I don’t care about anything except feeling like I did everything I could when the game is finished.’

But this year, ‘everything I could’ will expand from dominant blocking and hitting to back-row play ‘ an indication that things will be quite different this season for Kane and the Bearcats (1-2).

A pair of freshmen will play a major role this year, according to head coach Glenn Kiriyama. Michelle McDonough comes to BU from Orlando Hills, Ill., as an outside hitter, while Lindsey Mueller of Wisconsin will fill the shoes of departing setter Ashley Meffert.

‘[They] come in with more experience than any freshmen we’ve brought in,’ said Kiriyama. ‘They’re comin’ in with guns blazing.’

While Kiriyama admitted that playing a freshman setter full-time makes him a little nervous, he says, ‘That’s why I recruited her.’ He noted that Meffert, who became one of the top setters in the conference, also started all four years in a Bearcat uniform.

Senior captain Kathleen Schauer also returns to the starting lineup this season. ‘It’s great to be a senior,’ she said, ‘It makes every game seem more important, as there are so few left in our career.’

Kane and Schauer played integral parts of the 2005 team that won the America East conference tournament and went to the NCAA tournament. Both cited that experience as crucial to their outlook this year.

‘I think about being at the NCAA tournament all the time,’ Kane said. ‘I have lived one of my lifelong dreams ‘ I don’t know many people who can say that at 20. The night we won conference changed my life.’

But Kane said she hasn’t really discussed that experience too much with her new teammates ‘ yet.

‘I haven’t really talked to them about it ‘ being at the NCAAs and winning conference is hard to describe with words,’ she said. ‘I want them to experience it on their own ‘ I could never slightly encompass the overwhelming feeling I had those times.’

Junior libero Jackie Strader also returns from the AE championship team. The energetic Strader, or ‘Lil’ J,’ led the team with 3.48 digs per game last year.

‘We don’t have the big bangers, the physical hitters that will hit all the time,’ said Kiriyama. ‘We’ve got to rely on our blocking and defense.’

But outside hitter Brianna Strong looks to bring some more firepower to the team’s front line. After playing a key role on that championship-winning team, she returns as a sophomore after spending a year at Indiana University South Bend.

Kat Courage, Ashley Allen and Dawn Lammert, who Kiriyama said has ‘vastly improved’ since her rookie campaign last year, are also expected to contribute this season.

The America East conference is an up-and-coming conference in the national volleyball scene, led primarily by Albany in the last few seasons. The Great Danes have won two of the last three AE championships and are considered one of the Bearcats’ biggest rivals.

‘To me, Albany’s always going to be our top rival,’ said Kiriyama.

But the Danes were voted second in the preseason coaches’ poll, trailing first-place UMBC, which came within mere points of upsetting host Albany in last year’s conference tournament. The Bearcats were voted fourth in the poll.

‘The conference as a whole is a lot better,’ said Kiriyama. ‘We just hope we continue to improve throughout the year.’

The Bearcats will open their nine-match home schedule against Syracuse on Sept. 11.