In sports, as in life, there are four seasons: the off season, preseason, regular season and postseason. Three down, one to go.

Tomorrow evening at 6 p.m. the seventh–seeded Saint Louis University volleyball squad will take on the 10th–seeded South Florida Bulls in first-round action at the Conference USA tournament. The game will be a rematch for the Billikens as the Bulls swept the match two weeks ago and have pretty much had the upper hand in the overall series since the dawn of C-USA a decade ago.

The Bulls hold a 13-1 series record against the Bills, with the only blemish taking place five years ago in 1999.

Needless to say, the Billikens will be relying on some heavy hitting and some senior leadership to get them through the first round. Most of that should come from seniors Kayla Kmitta and Jessica Kmitta and junior Aida Antanaviciute. Kayla is coming off of back-to-back games where she reached double-digits in kills and Jessica just recently eclipsed the 1,000 career digs milestone. Antanaviciute, who did not play this past weekend because of a shoulder injury, is still ranked second in the nation in kills per game, totaling 6.37 a game. She should be back in time for the tournament this weekend.

Also contributing heavily these past few weeks has been senior Erin McClanahan, who notched her 2,000th assist for the Billikens and has stepped right in as setter halfway through the season and helped the Billikens to elevate their game.

Lauren Boissevain, having played a number of roles for the Billikens this season, continued her dominance on the outside against Houston last weekend, tallying 14 kills and 15 digs and helping secure the victory.

This past weekend, the Billikens squared off against TCU, ranked fourth in C-USA, and Houston, ranked eighth. As has happened all season long, the Billikens split the matches, getting shut down by the Horned Frogs of TCU on Friday but bouncing back quite nicely to blank Houston on Saturday. The matches put the Billikens' record at 14-16 overall and 6-7 in C-USA. That earned the Bills the seventh seed, just ahead of Houston and just a step behind Tulane.

If the Billikens can avenge their earlier loss to USF they will move on to face the second-seeded Cincinnati Bearcats. The Bearcats have a bye into the quarterfinals, awaiting the winner of the SLU vs. USF match. If the Bills do advance, they will have a chance to knock off the Bearcats one more time. Earlier this season, the Bills handed UC their only home loss of the season. Needless to say, the Bearcats will be looking for some revenge.

But first things first, and that requires a win against the USF Bulls tomorrow night.

Let the postseason begin.