After splitting a pair of home matches over the weekend, the Billikens are set to make a run in the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament and, potentially, to the NCAA tournament. The Bills (14-11, 10-5), who have secured a No. 3 seed in the conference tourney, are slated to take on a sixth-seeded Rhode Island (15-14, 7-8) squad on Friday, Nov. 18.
All conference tournament action will take place on top-seeded Dayton’s (22-6, 14-1) court. The team that is crowned champion of the A-10 bracket earns an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.
Wrapping up regular season play, the Billikens cruised to a 3-1 victory over the No. 2 Xavier Musketeers (19-10, 11-4) on Friday, Nov. 11, but they fell to Dayton in straight sets on Sunday, Nov. 13. “I think it’s great that we had the chance to play them right before the A-10 tournament…It’s certainly an advantage,” Head Coach Kent Miller said. “We played well this weekend, certainly not as well as we needed against Dayton, but I think it’s important for our team that we face top-level opponents going into the tournament.”
Andrea Beaty led the attack for the Billikens, racking up 39 kills between the two matches. Grace Bonoma solidified the defense. The sophomore collected 19 digs in each of two tilts, meriting her co-A-10 Defensive Player of the Week honors. Sunday’s loss marked the final home court appearance for seniors Amelia Karges and Alyssa Deno.
Deno notched seven kills in her final match, inching her way closer to the 1,000 career kills milestone. She currently stands at 983. If Saint Louis University wants to extend their season, they may have to rally around the pair of seniors’ last stand.
“I think that we really care about how much they have contributed to this program, and our team is playing hard for them,” Miller said. “We haven’t put a whole lot of specifics on ‘this is the last time’ or ‘that is the last thing.’ It’s really all about playing volleyball and taking it one game at a time; so we don’t want them to carry any burden into it.”
If the Bills can knock off Rhode Island, which they did on the road this past October, they would then have a re-match against Xavier, who holds a bye, in the second round on Saturday, Nov. 19. The third and final round will be held on Sunday, Nov. 20.
No. 4 George Washington and No. 5 Duquesne round out the rest of the tournament field.
