In the movie “Major League II,” the Cleveland Indians manager
Lou Brown went into a verbal tirade after a game during which he
exclaimed, “We won a game today. If we win tomorrow, that’s two in
a row. If we win the next one, that’s called a winning streak.”
While Saint Louis University volleyball coach Anne Kordes can’t
quite exclaim, as Brown could, that her team couldn’t put together
a winning streak due to a lack of effort, the summary stat line
from this past season’s conference schedule is staggering: five
straight weekends where the Billikens split their two games.
The result: one win and one loss. Always. It isn’t quite the way
coach Kordes probably would have liked to have laid it out.
Still, it definitely explains, beyond a doubt, why the Bills
have been hovering around the .500 mark all season.
The streak pretty much encompasses the entire Conference USA
season, so to examine it, one would have to go back to the
beginning of the Conference season.
Excluding the opening loss to Memphis, currently fourth in
C-USA, the Billikens started off with a loss to Tulane, current
10th, followed by a win against 13th ranked Southern Miss.
The next weekend followed much the same suit as the Bills lost
to 11th ranked Charlotte but then bounced back to beat the 12th-
ranked East Carolina.
The third weekend in the streak, undisputedly the toughest,
pitted the Billikens against the top-ranked Louisville Cardinals
and the second ranked Cincinnati Bearcats.
Surely the streak would have ended here with two losses, but it
was not to be as, the Bills were first swept by Louisville but then
bounced back a day later to take the Bearcats in five games,
keeping the streak alive and giving the Bills their biggest win of
the season.
A week later it was seventh-ranked DePaul falling to the Bills
to start the weekend.
Yet, fourth-ranked Marquette closed out the trip by handing the
Bills a defeat.
The consecutive wins against Cincinnati and DePaul were the
closest thing the Billikens have seen in the past month to a
winning streak.
Finally, last weekend, the Billikens capped off the streak with
a loss to eighth-ranked South Florida and a win against the cellar
dwellers of Alabama-Birmingham.
Overall, the Billikens beat the teams that they should have
beaten –as in the ones ranked below sixth–and lost to the teams
that they should have lost to, excluding losses to Tulane and
Charlotte, ranked 10th and 11th respectively, and a win over
Cincinnati, ranked second. The streak looks like it could possibly
continue this weekend, as the Billikens cap off their regular
season schedule at home with games against Houston, ranked fifth,
and TCU, ranked ninth.
The games will mark the final home matches in the careers of
Kayla, and Jessica Kmitta and Alexis Cooley, who will all be
recognized on senior night this Saturday evening against TCU.
Kayla Kmitta and Cooley have been mainstays at the net for the
Billikens in the past couple of years and Jessica Kmitta has been
moved around from outside hitter to defensive specialist and back,
excelling at each position. Their presence will be missed greatly
next year, as will their leadership.
This weekend, the Bills will hope to close out the season on a
high note in preparation for the C-USA tournament against two good,
yet beatable, squads.
As usual, the Billikens will rely on Aida Antanaviciute and
Lauren Boissevain to stir their attack and, with the season as an
indicator, someone like Kayla or Kmitta or Sutton Lasater will step
up to add some punch.
C-USA Volleyball Match-Up
Who: Houston Cougars
When: Tonight, 7 p.m.
Where: The Bauman – Eberhardt Center
