For most high school volleyball players, the minute you enter the court, all friendships are thrown aside in order to focus on doing what it takes to walk away with a win.  There is no use being cordial to your competition when they are out to stop you from achieving your goals.  For Emma Goldschmidt, Andrea Beaty and Carly Schumacher, playing against each other during high school should mean that they had a bitter hatred for one another. That, however, simply isn’t the case for these three star Saint Louis University athletes.

“We all knew that we were going to be playing for SLU, and we were well aware of each other’s talent, so we all had a great deal of respect for each other and began to look forward to playing together,” Goldschmidt said.

While playing for the Southwest Illinois Volley Club, her team would frequently compete in tournaments against the Rockwood Thunder and the Illini Elite, the teams with whom Beaty and Schumacher each played, respectively.

While at a SLU summer volleyball camp, Beaty and Goldschmidt met up and realized that this was where they wanted to play.  “At that moment, a light shined down and I was like, okay SLU, I’m yours,” Beaty said.  She then verbally committed to SLU without even telling her parents.

“Andrea is a very impulsive person.  You can see it on the court when she lets her emotions go between points.  We think of her as a fireball of energy,” Schumacher said.  Carly’s choice to come to SLU wasn’t as instantaneous, but rather a long, thought-out process.  While making the college decision, she only looked at the school academically; she disregarded its volleyball team.  She fell in love with the school but wasn’t recruited until late into her junior year.

The trio’s chemistry that pre-dates college is evident in the teams’ two conference wins last weekend against Charlotte and George Washington.
The Atlantic 10 Conference named Schumacher the Defensive Player of the Week for her efforts in the games. “I never thought I would be named the Defensive Player of the Week.  It came as a complete shock, but I view it more as a team award.  I couldn’t have done it without everyone else playing so well,” she said.

The rest of the team was quick to congratulate Schumacher. “Carly is just being humble, she really earned this on her own,” Beaty said.

The women’s team will be playing Dayton on Friday, Sept. 30 and Xavier on Saturday, Oct. 1. “George Washington beat us once last year and we wanted to get a good win against them this year.  We got our win and are using it as momentum to set us up for Dayton and Xavier,” Beaty said.

Wins against this pair of tough teams this weekend will keep SLU undefeated in conference play, and will help propel them to the top of the conference.