This past Saturday evening the Saint Louis University volleyball
team ended two impressive streaks. The first, and the one that’s
more worthy of press, was the University of Cincinnati’s 23-match,
home-winning streak.
The second, and the one that’s probably more telling of how the
Bills have been playing this season, was the five-match losing
streak the Bills were on in matches that went the full five games.
It might be an insignificant number as far as the stat boxes are
concerned, but what it really shows is that the Billikens are now
capable of pulling out the close games, even against perennial
powers like Cincinnati.
The Billikens, now 11-13 overall and 3-4 in conference play,
will return home this weekend to host the DePaul Blue Demons
tomorrow and the Marquette Golden Eagles on Saturday.
DePaul is having a season much like the Bills, as they have the
same conference record, and the Blue Demons have also lost 13 games
this season.
The Blue Demons pace setter is Mandy Moorberg, who has
accumulated 302 kills so far this season: not a bad number, but
nothing next to the backbone of the Billiken offense, Aida
Antanaviciute. Antanaviciute has already smashed an unbelievable
number of kills this season, 591 so far, and is on pace to break
the school record and to push the C-USA record. She is, in fact,
second in the nation in kills, trailing only Stacey Gordon of Ohio
State for the national lead.
With six matches left to play, and at her current pace,
Antanaviciute should hit somewhere in the range of 740 kills, which
would be 20 short of the C-USA record. Antanaviciute’s efforts so
far this season have earned her the C-USA Player of the Week award
four separate times, and this past week, after notching 32 kills
against Cincinnati, 20 against Louisville and 30 against Southwest
Missouri State, she was named the CVU.com National Player of the
Week.
Next up for the Billikens, on Saturday, is fellow Jesuit school
Marquette.
The Golden Eagles are having a stellar season so far having
amassed a 15-5 record overall and a 5-2 record in the conference.
Marquette’s kills leader has less than half as many as
Antanaviciute, but, overall, the Golden Eagles are solid and sound
and will pose quite a threat to the Billikens’ hopes of finishing
the season on a run and heading into the C-USA tournament with a
head of steam.
A plus, and perhaps a good reason why the Billikens were able to
finish off the Bearcats last weekend, was that they have been
getting healthier. At one point this season, the Billikens played a
stretch of games with only seven players. Last weekend, the Bills,
while still a couple players short of their full complement,
rotated in 10 players. Among the highlights for the Bills were Erin
McClanahan’s performance in the upset of Cincinnati, where she
contributed 70 assists. That puts her squarely in eighth place on
the Billikens all-time list.
Moving from setter back to outside hitter against the Bearcats
was Lauren Boissevain, who took full advantage and dropped in 20
kills. And speaking of players coming back from injuries, Kayla
Kmitta, sidelined for much of the season, showed that she was back
in the swing of things, notching a season-high 16 kills and
throwing in eight blocks for good measure.
With the Bills in the home stretch of their schedule, and the
C-USA tournament just around the corner, these next couple of games
against Marquette and DePaul will be crucial for the seeding. But
if there is any momentum squarely at their back, the Billikens will
be looking to stay on their emotional high and knock off a few more
conference foes.
