Last Friday, Oct. 7, the Saint Louis University women’s volleyball team traveled to Washington, D.C., where they defeated George Washington University 3-1 in Atlantic 10 conference play.
The Billikens opened up the match with a 30-19 win in game one, hitting .333 and holding GWU to a mere .077.
GWU responded in the second game with 19 kills and hit .390, tying the match 1-1.
In game three, the Bills dominated play with 15 kills on only 29 swings, giving them an astounding .414 hitting average and a 2-1 lead in the match.
In game four, SLU had 18 kills with a .378 kill rate.
GWU only managed a .143 hitting average, giving the Billikens a 3-1 run of the match.
Against the Generals, four Billikens reched double digits in kills.
Junior Angela Powers posted 19 Skills and hit .447 for the match with only two errors.
Junior Tatyana Menshikova hit a .349 and registered 19 kills.
Sophomore Sutton Lasater had 10 kills of her own and a match-high eight blocks, while Lauren Christman hit .409 and also had 11 kills and seven blocks.
After playing GWU, the Billikens brought their Atlantic 10 record to 2-2 and 8-10 overall.
After defeating GWU, the SLU volleyball team traveled to Charlotte, N.C., where they defeated the Charlotte 49ers 3-1, winning their second straight Atlantic 10 road match.
Game one was a close match, with the Bills leading 28-26 after kills by Powers and Christman put them in the lead.
A service error from Charlotte pushed the Bills to game point.
Aida Antanavicitue ended the game on a kill for a 30-28 Billiken win.
Game two was led by Charlotte, 23-20, until two straight errors from Charlotte and a kill from Antanaviciute brought the score to a 23-23 tie.
Four straight kills from the Billikens and a final kill from Menshikova closed out game two with a 30-28 win.
Game three was a struggle for the Billikens, with a .167 hitting average and a final score of 30-20.
SLU quickly recovered in game four, however, starting off the game with a 7-1 lead.
Charlotte fought back to a 9-5 score, but three straight kills from Menshikova, gave the Bills a 12-5 lead. After SLU gained a 21-14 lead, they carried on to win the game with a .432 hitting average and a 3-1 match victory over Charlotte.
“It was a good game because it put us back in contention for going to the conference tournament since Charlotte was ranked in the top half of the A-10 Conference. It was also a good win for us since they beat us last year at home,” said senior Lauren Boissevain
Boissevain moved into the top-10 career assists at SLU with an astonishing 49 assists in the match, putting her in ninth place with 1,764 assists in her career at SLU.
Antanaviciute notched her first double of the season, with 15 kills and 13 digs.
The Billikens are now 9-10 overall and 3-2 in the A-10 conference.
The Billikens continued on their road trip, as they traveled to Fayetteville, Ark. last Tuesday, where they defeated Arkansas 3-2.
After losing the first two games of the match, Arkansas appeared to be headed for a clean sweep.
In game three, however, the Billikens fought back from a 27-22 Arkansas lead, with seven straight points off Antanaviciute’s serving.
Tied at 30 all, an Arkansas error gave the Bills the game point advantage.
Menshikova ended the match off of a kill, giving the Billikens a game-three win.
After beginning the game with an Arkansas lead, the Billikens brought the score to an 11-11 tie.
SLU broadened the gap by a five-point lead and went on to defeat Arkansas in game four, tying the match score 2-2.
In the final game of the match, the Billikens began with an early lead, reaching an 8-11 advantage before Arkansas rallied to tie the game at 12-12.
The game was again tied at 14-14 when a kill from Antanaviciute gave the Bills match point.
Junior Jessica Poorbaugh ended the night for the Billikens with a match-winning kill.
With Menshikova, Antanaviciute, Christman and Poorbaugh all reaching double digit kills for the Billikens, SLU proved to be a dominating force.
Defensively, Lauren Boissevain also had 71 assists and 12 digs, while Erin McClanahan had 20 digs.
“This was a great weekend for us despite some unwanted losses in the past. After this weekend, however, we feel we have finally hit our stride as a team,” Powers said.
The Billiken volleyball team has now notched their third straight win and evened their record at 10-10.
With the confidence gained from last weekend and a strong team effort behind them, the Bills head to Ohio this weekend for two A-10 West Division matches.
SLU’s first match is against Xavier University in Cincinnati, this Friday, Oct. 14, at 6 p.m.
They then travel to face defending A-10 champion, the University of Dayton, in Dayton, Ohio, in a 4 p.m. match on Saturday Oct. 15.
The Bills are next at home on Oct. 21, to host the Fordham University Rams.
