Saint Louis University and the University of Dayton may be 333 miles apart, but when it comes to Atlantic 10 Conference volleyball, their rivalry becomes an epicenter of excitement.
Consider this: the last time the Billikens lost to a conference team other than Dayton was in 2007. The Flyers defeated SLU in the 2009 A-10 Championship and shared the regular season crown with the Bills. The story was a bit different in 2008: SLU won the regular season title after beating Dayton. This year, Dayton and SLU are 1-2 in pre-season picks in the A-10 Conference.
In short, there may be no better rivalry in the A-10. Like Jekyll and Hyde, you can’t have one without the other.
“The rivalries and competitiveness in the league are at an all-time high,” Billikens head coach Anne Kordes said. “We have a larger target on our backs this year. We are going to have to work extremely hard to defend that ranking, and we know that because the A-10 programs have done nothing but get better.”
No. 19 Dayton (9-3) rolls into St. Louis this weekend, kicking off A-10 play, to take on the freshly-stocked 5-7 Billikens. SLU graduated five seniors in the spring and features new players at every position.
The game begins at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 24 at Chaifetz Arena. A pep rally for students will be held on the concourse of the arena, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Free food will be served, and fans will receive a Billiken Blue-Out T-shirt.
While neither team is guaranteed a win, the one guarantee is that the rivalry will be taken to a whole new level.
“We absolutely still expect it to be [a battle] this year again, as they have some really good players returning and their freshman class is ridiculous,” UD head coach Kelly Sheffield said. “The coach over there does a great job, and what I’m really excited about is playing them twice this year … Both of these two schools need to play each other twice a year.”
Dayton will have a lot on the line Friday at Chaifetz. The team is currently on a three-game winning streak and is nationally ranked. SLU, on the other hand, looks to regain some footing after a sub-.500 start. Kordes calls conference play “a new beginning” for her young team.
Part of that young team, freshman middle blocker Andrea Beaty, has been a force at the net for the Billikens; she’s blocked a team-high 31 kills so far this season. She also understands what the Dayton vs. SLU duel means.
“If we beat them, it means a lot more than if they beat us,” Beaty said. “I love playing the games where people think the other team is better than you, because that’s the chance to show people, ‘no, we are good.’
“I can see it on [my teammates’] faces. It’s a big deal [playing Dayton]. We’re going to show them that they aren’t better than us.”
As if the intensity surrounding the match couldn’t get any higher, junior Alyssa Deno calls the Friday night match a turning point in the season for the young Bills. Deno explained that, while the team may not have a winning record, it is a winning team.
“This would be a huge win, not just because it’s our rival, and it’s our first A-10 game, but they ranked, and to beat a ranked team would be huge,” Deno said. “It would set the tempo for conference play.”
It would also go a long way toward rebuilding one of the biggest success stories in SLU history.
“This is a year for us to grow as a team and fix our little mistakes,” Deno said. “This is a huge year for [Kordes]. She’s used to having a team that wins all the time, and she’s had to be a teaching coach more than she has in the past. So we are all growing together.”
Playing Dayton will be tough for the Billikens, but the team will have to rebound quickly; the Xavier Muskateers come calling on Sunday, Sept. 26. Beaty says the team will be ready.
“Not one team has come in and beat us without passion … we’ve been playing our butts off,” Beaty said.
“We have the chance to play great and do great things this weekend.”
