Being one of a kind has it’s ups and downs.

Jessica Moss will attest to that. Moss is the lone senior on the Saint Louis University volleyball team.

“It’s exciting,” said Moss. “I don’t feel above the team. I feel that I’m equal to the rest of the team.”

She was a solid high school player. Moss was named to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch All-Metro Team and Bellville News-Democrat All-Area first team.

Moss started her career with impressive numbers.

Freshman year she was second on the team in digs with 2.46 per game and 315 total.

She put together a string of seven straight matches with at least 10 digs.

She was hampered by injuries her sophomore season, and her numbers showed it.

She only tallied 75 digs and averaged 1.5 a game. Moss went from 214 kills freshman year to only 18 sophomore year.

Junior year, Moss came back with a vengeance. She posted career highs in kills (287), attempts (886), digs (438), and service aces (21).

She led the team with 438 digs and was selected to the All-Tournament team at the Coco-Cola Billiken Invitational.

This season she will be looked on to lead a program that lost one of its best players in history to graduation.

Last season, Moss had the luxury of playing with co-Conference USA Player of the Year, Laura Risley.

Moss has the unenviable task of trying to fill Risley’s shoes.

“It’ll be hard to fill her spot,” Moss said

“There are a lot of expectations of me being a leader of this team. I have to be a good role model and I want to have fun with the team.”

She is quick to add that she and Risley are not the same.

“We’re a little bit different,” Moss said. “We have different styles of leading. She’s more outspoken and I’m more encouraging.”

Even as different as their styles might be, the expectation is the same: make it to the postseason and to perform.

“I think we have a good team this year,” Moss said.

“If we can stay strong and mentally tough, we can go further.”

In recent years, the Billikens have started off the year hot. The past two seasons they put together 14-0 and 10-0 starts.

But the Bills faltered as the season came to a close.

When the Billikens needed to win critical games last season against Cincinatti and Houston, they faltered.

They were eliminated in the first round of the C-USA tournament last season, and Moss is hopeful this team can go further into the postseason.

“I hope we can play further into the conference tournament,” Moss said. “I just hope we don’t roll downhill again.”

Even though she is the lone senior, Moss is still looking out for the best interests of the team.

“We all get along great this year,” Moss said.

“We’ve got a young group of girls. I think we’ll do really well.”

Moss is ready for the challenges that lie ahead, “I just want to have fun,” Moss said.