Green Waves probably cannot stop the Billikens. Tidal waves, on the other hand–well that’s another story.
When the Saint Louis University volleyball team heads south this weekend to New Orleans to face off against conference rival Tulane, as it opens its conference schedule they are also going to be battling a much bigger opponent: Tropical Storm Isidore, which has been wreaking havoc all around southern Louisiana and the Gulf Coast.
The storm might be lucky for the Green Wave, but it should only be a temporary reprieve. If the teams do not square off on Saturday because of traveling difficulties, they should be able to make the game up Sunday.
“The match might be put off, but we’ll definitely get it in,” coach Marilyn Nolen said.
The sooner the Bills get down to the Bayou, the better.
Last night, in front of a packed house of just over 200 rowdy fans at the Bauman-Eberhardt Center, the Bills experienced a hiccup of sorts against the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers.
The Ramblers are now 8-3 on the season. Two of their three losses came against top 10 squads, so Loyola was no slouch of a team. However, the Bills put themselves at a disadvantage from the outset with a lack of execution.
“We were well-prepared and knew what we needed to do, we just didn’t execute as well as we should have,” Nolen stated.
Still, even without showing much offensive prowess, the Bills put themselves in a position to win each game. They led the first game up until the very end, finally dropping it 30-28. The next two games were not quite as close but still were by no means blowouts.
“Our biggest problem was our offense. There were glaring differences (last night) between our offenses,” Nolen said.
The Billikens did not hit as well as their opponents across the floor. Colleen Hunter was the only Bill who hit double-digits in kills. The Ramblers, however, had three players reach the double-digit mark in kills.
“We’re going to watch a lot of film and study some stats and get back on track for this weekend,” Nolen said.
Ironically, the Bills were coming off a good tournament showing over the weekend at Southwest Missouri State. They started off the weekend with a hard-fought battle against the University of Missouri-Kansas City. After taking the first two games of the match in fine form, the Bills dropped the next two games and needed a fifth game to pull out the victory.
But on the first match of the day on Saturday, the Bills played an incredible match, bowling over Wichita State in three straight games and propelling themselves to a title match against the host team later that day.
“Wichita State was a career match for our team,” Nolen stated. “We played great that game.”
The title match that night against the hosts from Southwest Missouri State was a bit of a let down after the earlier match against Wichita State. After splitting the first two games with the Bears, SMS took the next two and the tournament title. Jessica Kmitta and Colleen Hunter were named to the all-tournament team. The loss snapped the Bills’ three-match winning streak and dropped them to 9-5 on the season.
