At this point last year, the Saint Louis University volleyball
team was 3-6 and well on its way to a forgettable season. What a
difference a year makes.

Last Wednesday, the Billikens opened their season against
Indiana State University in what was sure to be a scorcher. And boy
was it ever.

“We started off incredibly,” said coach Anne Kordes. “We were
just really on top of our game.”

There are points in a season that can be looked back on long
after the season is over as the turning point and, ironically
enough, if the Bills hold true to their early season form, the
first game of their season against ISU might have been theirs.

The Bills were faced with a litany of players fallen to injury,
and while they could have easily fallen back into defensive mode,
they attacked.

Lauren Boissevain, who moved back to setter this season, went
back to outside hitter and Erin McClanahan stepped up from
defensive specialist back into the setter role she occuppied last
season.

And Aida Antanaviciute just took over. After understandably
dropping the first game, Antanaviciute and the Bills rallied and
won the last three games 30-18, 30-19 and 30-24. Antanaviciute set
a school record for kills in a match, with 39.

“Aida just put us on her shoulders. With all of the position
moves she was basically the only girl on the floor that was playing
the position that she was slotted to play at the beginning of the
season. But she is very competitive, and after every kill she’d
yell and the team would get more and more fired up,” Kordes
said.

One of the toughest things to do after a big win, though, is
carry that momentum through to the next game, or, in this case, the
next tournament. But that is precisely what they did at the Indiana
University Invitational last weekend. And they did it against some
stiff competition, too. Starting off the tourney, they played
Pacific 10 Conference power Oregon State University.

The entire match was hard-fought but the results were well worth
it, as the Bills squeaked by the Beavers in five games, winning
20-18 in the deciding game. Antanaviciute contributed another 32
kills and 13 digs and Boissevain also stepped up to provide 23
kills and 14 digs of her own.

“We went in with a leave-it-on-the-court mentality, and that’s
exactly what we did. Not a ball hit our side of the court that
didn’t have at least two girls diving for it,” Kordes said.

The following afternoon the Bills squared off against the host
Hoosiers and again, they left more than a few fans stunned by not
just beating Indiana but sweeping them 30-28, 32-30 and 30-27.
Antanaviciute had another stellar match, contributing 24 kills, but
Boissevain and Jessica Poorbaugh also reached double figures in the
kill category.

“We gained some respect in that match. We played out of our
minds that game, with the momentum from the night before carrying
over and we were just unstoppable,” Kordes said.

Unfortunately, the two incredible matches in the preceding 24
hours had physically and emotionally drained the Bills, and their
final match of the tournament against Murray State was less than
stellar, as Murray State handed them their first loss of the
season.

But, despite the outcome of their final match, the Billikens
still came out of Bloomington as the tournament champions.
Antanaviciute’s Herculean efforts in both the ISU match and in the
ensuing Indiana Tournament won her Conference USA co-player of the
week honors.The Billikens will take their 3-1 record on the road
again this weekend to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Tournament where they will face the hosts, the College of
Charleston, Indiana University and Purdue University-Indianapolis
(IUPUI). Each should pose a challenge, but that is nothing new for
the Billikens so far this season.

“This tournament will be a lot different from last weekend’s
tournament because, while the competition is still pretty stiff,
the teams’ makeups are pretty different.

“This tournament we’ll face some intense scrappiness, whereas
last weekend the teams were a lot more athletic,” Kordes said.

After that, the Bills will finally return home to host their own
tournament, the Billiken Invitational, where they will play both
Valparaiso and North Texas twice.

On this exact date last year, the Bills had three wins, the same
total they have so far this season.

The difference now is in the loss column. Last season they had
six losses, and now, there is only one.