Patience is a virtue.
After battling through back-to-back two-and-a-half-hour matches, the Saint Louis University volleyball team remains undefeated at home after picking up two Conference USA wins this weekend against Tulane and Southern Mississippi.
Friday night, the Billikens hosted the Tulane Green Wave in what appeared to be a match that would be dominated by the Billiken offense.
Colleen Hunter started the offensive efforts early on, making good on four kills on four swings. Tulane caught up with the Billikens later in the match, but the Billikens rallied late in the game to win it 30-26.
The Green Wave picked up the pace in the second game and hit nearly three times as well as the Bills, ending the game 30-18. Tulane’s Britney Hurst led the attack with seven kills in the game, while Hunter was held to just four kills.
Tulane picked up the third game, not as easily as the second game, winning 30-27. The Billikens stormed back in the fourth game, winning 30-25.
The final game of the match remained close early on, tied 3-3. Several Billiken blocks, kills and Tulane errors pushed the Bills ahead to the final score of 15-8.
After the long-fought win Friday night, the Bills battled their way to an emotional win Saturday night against former SLU assistant Santiago Restrepo and the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles.
“Tonight was critical,” said head coach Marilyn Nolen. “We’re now 6-0 at home, which is huge. Tulane was a big win last night for conference rankings because of our splits earlier with TCU and Memphis.”
The Bills blazed ahead of the Golden Eagles early on in the first game, leading 10-2. Southern Miss had an incredible rally in the middle of the game to close the gap to a single point and continued their efforts to win the game 30-27.
The Bills tied the match by winning the second game 30-22. Hunter, Knobeloch, and Brooke Minniear each contributed three kills during the game, while Missy Werges lead the Billiken defense with six digs.
The third and fourth games were nearly identical, the lead being tossed back and forth late in the game, with Hunter ending the third game with three straight kills to make the score 33-31. The Bills did not fare as well in the fourth game, with USM closing the game 33-31 after a SLU block attempt and error.
“We did a lot of overreacting,” Nolen said. “Instead of waiting for the ball, we’d jump before the ball came, since we’ve been playing a lot of power hitting teams.”
The match ended in a thrilling fifth game, which featured outstanding play from Hunter, Minniear and Werges. Werges slammed down a kill to put the Bills ahead 13-8, and Minniear and Hunter combined efforts to push the Billikens to 14-8 after a blocked USM attempt. Hunter scored the final point of the match by drilling her 29th kill of the night.
“Tonight we had to be patient, since we know Santiago,” Nolen said. “It was hard for the team to block him out, he was calling nearly every play we’d be running. It was emotionally tough, but we needed to fight through it.”
The Billikens fought diligently against the Golden Eagles. Hunter, Knobeloch, who hammered 17 kills, and Minniear, who had 12 kills and 19 digs, led the Billikens’ offense.
Hunter’s impressive performance last week against Indiana, Tulane and Southern Miss earned her Co-C-USA Player of the Week, sharing this week’s honor with Cincinnati’s Julie DuPont. This marks the third time Hunter has received the recognition, after receiving it twice last year.
This weekend, the Bills hope to maintain their perfect home record with more back-to-back conference matches against two of the hottest teams in the league. Friday night the Bills host the Cincinnati Bearcats, who are coming off a nine-game winning streak.
Saturday, the Billikens will face the Louisville Cardinals, who had won seven straight before falling to Cincinnati.
