Two years ago Jim Fassel, the head coach of the New York
football Giants, in a mid-season prediction comparable to the Babe
calling his shot, predicted that his team, then hovering below the
.500 mark, would make the playoffs. In fact, he guaranteed it.

Last weekend, the Saint Louis University volleyball team, in a
team meeting, collected themselves, reminded each other of their
goals and abilities and boldly set out to

change the fate of their sub par, albeit young, season. Time
will tell if it worked.

“The meeting was just the girls coming together and reminding
each other to focus and to do the things they know they can do,”
said coach Marilyn Nolen.

The meeting came after a 3-1 loss to the Houston Cougars last
Friday afternoon, which is what Nolen called one of the team’s
poorest outings of the year.

The Billikens came out strong and took the first game, but they
could not overcome their erratic hitting and dropped the last three
games and the match to the host Cougars.

Abright spot for the Bills was the defensive efforts of junior
Kayla Kmitta, who tallied seven kills in the losing effort.

“We just played poorly. We could not get anything going in the
middle of our offense and Houston, to their credit, gameplanned on
defense to our outside hitters and pretty much

just left the middles alone,” Nolen said.

The Bills then called their team meeting, the results of which
were evident the very next day in Fort Worth, against the Texas
Christian University Horned Frogs.

Although the Billikens were again unable to come away with a
win, they were, however, much more on point, as was evident in
their play.

After dropping the first game by a narrow margin, the Billikens
bounced back and coupled some clutch kills with some stellar
defense and stifled the Horned Frogs 30-21,

outhitting, digging and flat-out outplaying to knot the score at
one to one and gain a little bit of momentum heading into the final
two games.

But some of the demons that have been haunting the Bills all
year came back to haunt them as they were unable to close out the
final two games of the match and were

nipped at the end, losing both in identical fashion, 30-28.

“We were so close. [The team] has become really frustrated,
which I kind of like because frustration leads to progress,” Nolen
said. “Our group of seniors from last year went

through the same type of rough patch their sophomore season and
they came out much better for it in the end.”

The growing pains might get a bit rougher this weekend, though,
as perennial Conference USA power South Florida comes to town.

USF, however, has had to deal with much of the same problems the
Bills have this season, as they too have played a tough schedule so
far, including four games against top 20 teams, included in them
number three ranked Florida.

As has been the case much of the season, Nolen is going with who
has been hot recently, and right now that means freshman Mo Shortal
will be getting a start at the outside hitter position tomorrow
night.

Also, the Billikens will implement some changes with the
starting rotation, as freshman Jess Poorbaugh will move from
defensive specialist to an outside hitter spot and Jessica Kmitta
will move back to defensive specialist as the team tries to take
advantage of each girls strengths.

C-USA Home Match

Who: University of South Florida Bulls

When: Tomorrow, 7 p.m.
Where: Bauman-Eberhardt Center