Who said anything about rebuilding?

There are not many teams that could honestly say they feel
pretty confident going into a season after graduating five of their
program’s best players just last spring. But confident is precisely
what the Saint Louis University Volleyball team is.

“This team is chomping at the bit. These girls are ready to play
now. It’s a shame we don’t start practice until (Aug.) 11th,” head
coach Marilyn Nolen said.

And there is no reason why this Billiken team should not be
brimming with confidence. Last year’s version of the Bills went
20-9 overall and 10-3 in conference play and fell just short of
attaining an NCAA tournament berth.

That strong performance was due largely to the overwhelming
senior leadership of last year’s team, which included Brooke
Minniear, Ember Knobeloch, Missy Werges, Beth Middendorf and
Colleen Hunter. Collectively, these five players accounted for
around 75 percent of the Bills offense from a season ago. Most
teams take a couple of years to come back after an exodus like
that.

But not the 2003-2004 Billikens. Nolen was already hot on the
recruiting trail last summer looking for talent to slide into her
soon-to-be vacated lineup and that is exactly what she got.

Staying true to the way she found Hunter, Nolen found a local
product, also from Cor Jesu, named Erin McClanahan to fill the
setting duties left by Middendorf. McClanahan will enter SLU as a
sophomore; with her arrival, Lauren Boissevain will move over from
setter to outside hitter, a niche she found for herself during the
spring season.

“Erin is a strong setter and we really like what we have with
her. Also, with Lauren’s progress, we are going to be able to have
two experienced setters on the court for most of the game, which is
a nice advantage for us to have,” Nolen said.

The other hot pipeline for Billiken volleyball players these
past few years has been California, thanks largely to outgoing
assistant coach Alan Ursilo. Ursilo was instrumental in bringing
many top recruits from the west coast to SLU, and this year was no
different–as he helped to bring in another middle hitter, junior
Alexis Cooley, who will fill the hole left by Knobeloch, along with
current junior Kayla Kmitta.

Another recruit coming from the highly competitive all-girl’s
school circuit in the St. Louis area is freshman Mo Shortal.
Shortal attended St. Joseph’s, where she was a kills machine and
led St. Joe’s to a 27-8-1 record her senior year and to a district
title.

Shortal has a bit of Billiken history in her blood as her
grandfather is Billiken basketball great “Easy” Ed MacCauley.

Trekking across the state and into Kansas, the Bills were able
to find a another recruiting jewel in the form of Angela Powers, of
St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Shawnee, Kan. Powers owns the
school’s all-time kills record, as well as the single season kills
record and the kills per game record.

Rounding out this year’s recruiting class is a third freshman,
Jessica Poorbaugh, from Deer Creek, Ill. Poorbaugh was another
all-everything player at her school of Deer Creek-Mackinaw. She
captained her squad to an almost flawless 30-4 record her senior
year.

The three new freshmen are all outside hitters, which bodes well
for the Billikens in their quest to replace Colleen Hunter and
Minniear. The freshmen will team up with Ashley Hunter, Boissevain,
Jessica Kmitta, twin sister of Kayla, and Alyson Merchant to give
the Bills a solid core of hitters for the upcoming year.

To go along with their athletic prowess, the Billiken team of
last year was also given Academic All-American honors, as the
cumulative GPA for the team was well over 3.4.

“We are blessed to have girls on our teams that are so
incredibly smart and are able to prioritize,” Nolen said. “It’s
nice to be able to think of our girls going to a school of SLU’s
caliber and excelling, which I know that each and every one of them
could do. Volleyball is not the only reason they are here,” Nolen
said.

As mentioned, last year’s assistant volleyball coach Alan Ursilo
has moved back to his home state of California to be the head coach
of a club team and to pursue a real estate career.

As for the upcoming year, there is reason to believe that the
Bills will be able to build upon last year’s successes and launch
themselves into the upper-echelon of Conference USA and a possible
tournament berth.