Chris Sprecher, junior in civil engineering, went to Lied Recreational Center one day early last autumn to play a few games of pick-up basketball.After a couple of games, a reserved 21-year old woman asked to join.”Yeah sure,” Sprecher said. He decided to pick her up on defense. Big mistake.”She kicked my ass,” he said. She drove past him for a lay-up a couple of times. She hit some deep threes.”She made every shot she took,” Sprecher said.A couple of months later, at an ISU women’s basketball game, Sprecher was shocked. The pick-up player who had run laps around him was also a starting senior for the Cyclones.”It’s not like I go up to people and am like ‘Hi, I’m Erica Haugen. I’m on the women’s basketball team,'” Haugen said in response to her rendezvous at the rec.”I think I’m at a great stage where people don’t recognize me,” she said.About 100 colleges and universities did however, coming out of high school.She chose Iowa State because it is a shorter drive from her Osseo, Minn. home than the University of Kansas or University of Colorado would have been.Although Haugen started as a freshmen and now again as a senior, she is the Cyclone that often blends in and gets lost in the shuffle.It could be because any attention that is lauded her way is quickly deferred by Haugen to her role on the team.Against Kansas last week, Haugen nailed three three-pointers at the outset of the second half, giving the Cyclones its first nine points of the half on its way to a 67-48 win. Haugen finished with 13 points.”She was the difference in the game,” ISU head coach Bill Fennelly said of Haugen afterward.”My role, to me, is to play defense and shoot the open shot,” Haugen said, chin in her chest.Erica Haugen is the first of two daughters born to Lee and Jill Haugen. Haugen said that even to this day, she and her 17-year old sister Brooke have a competitive fire that runs between them.”But [Brooke] is more like ‘Hey I got an “A” on my math test. What did you get when you took it?’ You know, that kind of thing,” Haugen said. Growing up, Jill Haugen would raise the handle end of a three foot broomstick in Erica’s face when Haugen shot around on her backyard hoop. She learned how to shoot that way.Her shooting form is unique.With her right foot slightly forward of her left, Haugen bends her knees toward each other as her arms start at her hips and swing upward. As her hands roll up and extend out from her chest, her right wrist flips down while her arm straightens out.”Nice shot E,” her teammates yell in unison as Haugen drains a three-pointer at Wednesday’s afternoon practice. The form works.Haugen is averaging 8.1 points a game this season, shooting 43.7 percent from the field.Behind the arc, she is more dangerous, making 31-63 three-pointers for an accuracy of 49.2 percent.Perhaps the most telling statistic, however, is that Haugen has amassed these numbers coming off a junior season that she “[doesn’t] want to talk about.”But she did.”I just got in a slump,” Haugen said. “It seemed like the harder I tried, the worse I got.”Haugen averaged 2.9 points a game last year. She shot 26.0 percent from the three-point line, and 32.7 percent from the floor.”Offensive players get in a rut from time to time,” Fennelly said.Haugen said she does not believe it was anything special she did at the start of this year. She has simply found her role, one which she fills nicely.”Last year, I just wasn’t transferring what I did in practice to the game. This year, I’m more relaxed. I’m comfortable with the system,” Haugen said.