This weekend is shaping up to be the biggest ever in the short history of Chaifetz Arena. The Saint Louis University Volleyball team will host two-time defending national champion and preseason No. 1 Penn State. The Billikens will face off against Alabama and Miami (Ohio) this weekend as well, in the Active Ankle challenge, a round-robin-style tournament.
The competition is elite, and the stakes are high: win and the nation will take notice, lose and preseason expectations may dwindle. That’s exactly how head coach Anne Kordes wants it.
“It’s been our game plan … we aren’t scheduling these games for a certainty of a win,” Kordes said. “There’s no doubt that we want to be the best, and I feel like we have to play the best to be the best. We have to test ourselves right away.
“We’re not doing our job unless we have a target on our back, and we’re the team everybody wants to beat. That’s where we’re at right now, because of what we did last season. But that’s exactly where we need to be.”
Kordes will have plenty of ammunition for the tournament when the No. 20 Bills take on Alabama, 7 p.m. Friday night, with Miami (Ohio) and Penn State following on Saturday, at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. respectively. SLU will take the court with four returning All-America selections, including the Atlantic 10 Setter of the Year, Whitney Roth, and A-10 Player of the Year, Sammi McCloud. Also playing into the Billikens’ advantage, the team has not lost in St. Louis since Sept. 5 of last year, boasting a 13-1 record at Chaifetz.
But SLU has a very formidable opponent in Penn State. The Nittany Lions have not lost a match in two seasons and return five players from the 2008 national championship squad. Penn State downed SLU 3-0 when the teams met last year.
“We really have nothing to lose. Penn State hasn’t lost a game in two years, so if we come out and give them a fight, there’s nothing else we can really ask for,” McCloud said. “It’s always a lot of fun to come out against competitive teams and we’ve really put ourselves in the position to compete and hopefully we come out and play hard.”
Added A-10 Most Outstanding Player, Bridget Fonke, “They are really athletic, but we’ve prepared well and I think we’re really going to hold our own.”
For the Billikens to pull off the upset, they might need a secret weapon. So what is that extra key to beating Penn State? Team chemistry.
“Nothing beats team chemistry and that’s something we have a strong advantage with,” McCloud said. “To be able to play together for four years, and being great friends, it helps when you’re playing teams like Penn State. It brings something extra to the court.”
And while the challenge is big, no one associated with the volleyball team doubts themselves or the fact that they should be there.
“I don’t think this is a fluke,” Kordes said. “This is the end result of a lot of hard work from the staff and the players. We want to bring in the top recruits and we’ve been able to do that.”
“We talked about it, and said it would happen, but to play the top team, you can’t beat it,” Fonke echoed. “You think about it, but it’s always different in real life. It’s been incredible, especially since we’re so close. We have so much fun playing together.”
