The Saint Louis volleyball team brought their “A” game on the road last weekend to Honolulu, Hawaii, but only managed one win out of three matches. That win, against No. 10 California, was enough to advance the Billikens to a No. 16 ranking, the best in program history.
SLU faced three ranked opponents while in Hawaii but were overwhelmed by No. 4 Hawaii (21-25, 23-25, 25-19, 15-25) and No. 2 Texas (25-17, 25-18, 25-10). The Bills downed California 25-20, 25-20, 25-22.
“We had a great win against California,” Head Coach Anne Kordes said, “and I thought we played great. Our defense was good, our passing was phenomenal . it was a good match for us.
“And I’m excited about the [No. 16] ranking. It’s very impressive on the team’s end. They’ve earned it. Hopefully it continues to put us on the map and give us some confidence.”
Against Hawaii, the Bills (3-3) suffered narrow losses in the first two sets and the Rainbow Wahine blocking and offensive firepower proved to be too much for the Billikens in the fourth set as SLU dropped its second straight match to a top-five opponent. Hawaii struggled to pull away from SLU, despite out-hitting them in the first two matches. The Billikens took set number three behind seniors Bridget Fonke and Sammi McCloud. That duo wasn’t enough to beat a dominant Hawaii in set-four and the Bills suffered another disappointing loss.
The SLU offense came alive against No. 10 Texas. Fonke hit .464 with a team-high 14 kills and nine digs. Senior Whitney Roth added a double-double of 36 assists and a team-best 10 digs to go with five kills. Though neither team was dominant, SLU capitalized off Texas’ errors in all three matches to pull out a victory. In the final set, both teams hit over .450, but Megan Boken paced SLU with six kills and Fonke and McCloud each added five. The victory marks just the third time in program history that SLU has beaten a ranked opponent.
The match against Texas was the crux of the weekend. SLU was swept by the No. 2 Longhorns and turned in their worst performance of the season. The team hit just .095 and committed 22 errors.
Texas’ offense overwhelmed Saint Louis early and none of SLU’s efforts could pull the team back into the game. Boken had 12 kills while McCloud added nine. Whitney Behrens turned in 11 digs against Texas.
“[Texas] is just so good . we did a good job,” Kordes said. “They just had too many weapons, were hard to contain. It seemed that we contained what we could and then someone else would catch fire.”
For her efforts, Fonke was awarded Atlantic 10 Conference Co-Offensive Player of the Week. Fonke, an outside hitter, collected a team-high 35 kills at the Hawaiian Airlines Classic. She enjoyed her best outing of the season in the tournament opener against No. 4 Hawaii. Fonke pounded down a team season-high 18 kills to go with nine digs and one block. Then she earned the team’s top offensive performance in the win over No. 10 California, hitting .464 with 14 kills, nine digs, two assists and a block.
“It was exciting to get the award. We really focused on hitting in the practices leading up to the tournament which helped me swing with confidence. … It was a true team effort,” Fonke said.
The schedule doesn’t slow down for the Billikens. This weekend, they head to the University of Illinois in Champaign for the State Farm Classic. There, they will face No. 14 Illinois as well as Cincinnati and Illinois State.
“Illinois is a big team, it’s going to be a good match for us,” Kordes said. “They are very balanced. We’re going to have to serve tough and play great defense against them.”
