In a case of Jekyll and Hyde that would even make Robert Louis
Stevenson smile, the Saint Louis University volleyball team has
continued its unpredictable play, which has marked the beginning of
their relatively young season, taking two matches convincingly over
the weekend against some high octane talent, but dropping a third
to a similar squad by a hefty margin.

Last weekend, the Billikens played in what was perhaps their
most hotly contested match of all year: the opener against the
Washington State Cougars. The Cougars, holding home court
advantage, pulled out all of the stops in trying to pull out a
victory against the feisty Billikens.

“It had a very college basketball atmosphere to it. They had a
group of fans sitting next to us who would taunt our girls and a 40
piece band playing all throughout the game,” said coach Marilyn
Nolen.

But not even Gabrielle Reece ditching her bikini and pulling on
some knee pads could have driven the Cougars past the Billikens on
that night. Junior Alexis Cooley led a collection of hitters on
this night with a .652 hitting percentage, second all-time only to
the .700 Colleen Hunter once posted, and the Billikens solid
defense held the Cougars to a paltry .162 hitting percentage of
their own on their way to a three games to one victory. The Cougars
were at one point this season ranked as high as number 17 but after
this defeat, their only loss on the weekend, they are now once
again fighting to get back into the top 25.

Next up for the Bills was insurgent Loyola-Marymount who was
coming off of a top 10 upset and were also in the top 25. This is
where the Bills alter-ego emerged as Loyola pounded SLU three to
nil. But again, as surely as the tax man cometh, the Billikens
rebounded and knocked off New Mexico, also by the score of three
games to one.

“Inconsistency is our motto. Player to player, it’s even
systemic. We are just so unpredictable,” Nolen said.

This weekend, the Bills will once again spend in the enigmatic
world known as “the road,” and it just so happens that this road
leads to Bloomington, Ind. and the Indiana University Volleyball
Tournament.

“Indiana is going to be another tough test for us. Every team we
will play is very strong. It reminds me a lot of the Southwest
Missouri Tournament where every team we played was strong,” Nolen
said.

Ironically, the Billikens will start this weekend’s tourney off
just as they did last weekend’s, with a game against the host team.
The Hoosiers boast an incredible junior talent, outside hitter
Christine Archibald. She is going to need to bring all of her
athletic ability and more if she hopes to stack up against the
arsenal of hitters that the Bills have developed over the course of
this relatively short season.

Included in that mix of arms is Cooley, and a late addition to
the armory, Jessica Kmitta, who last year served as the Bills’
defensive specialist, however this year, moved up to the outside
hitter position and has excelled. Taking over for Kmitta at
defensive specialist is freshman Jessica Poorbaugh.

All three will have to help the team step it up a notch this
weekend and fill in for the injured Ashley Hunter, who leads the
Bills in kills and digs and ranks third in service aces. Hunter is
nursing a leg injury and while Nolen has not said whether or not
she’ll be available for the tournament this weekend, she was held
out of practice yesterday and she was favoring her leg in the later
games of last weekend’s tournament.

“Losing Ashley would be a big loss for us. She is really our
only returning starter from last year’s squad and her kill to error
ratio is incredible ,” Nolen said.

After playing the Hoosiers tomorrow night, the Bills will then
take on Western Kentucky, a conference winner from a year ago, and
Austin Peay. All three teams are knocking on the door of the top
25, much like almost every other team the Billikens have played
these past couple of weeks. But if track records mean anything, as
they tend to, it probably won’t matter how well the other teams
play. The only thing that will matter is which Billikens team
decides to show up: Jekyll or Hyde?