Marcia E. Hamilton would have been proud of the fight the Billiken volleyball team put up this past weekend at the annual Marcia E. Hamilton Classic. The tournament was established to honor Hamilton, who lost an eight-year fight with breast cancer in 2010. SLU faced the University of Evansville on Friday night and Southeast Missouri State on Saturday afternoon, collecting their fourth and fifth wins in six matches.
“It was a good competitive tournament, I think all the teams here had good, tough matches, which was one of our objectives,” Head Coach Kent Miller said after his team went 2-1 in the tournament but finished in third place. “I’m excited that we were able to compete at that high level.”
The Billikens, playing for the first time this season in Chaifetz Arena, first went up against the Purple Aces of Evansville on Friday night. Ruling the court, SLU ended the Purple Aces’ first night in St. Louis with a 25-21, 20-25, 25-17, 25-19 win. Anna Church dominated the service line, recording 3 aces in the match. Carly Marcum added 17 kills for the offense while Megan Gilbert added another 13. Grace Bonoma anchored the defense with 28 digs, a new season-high.
SLU went head-to-head against the Redhawks of Southeast Missouri State the next afternoon, downing them in four sets, winning 25-19, 19-25, 25-22, 26-24. Lauren Baumet led the attack with 21 kills, followed by Lindsey Dinkelacker and Marcum with 9 each. Cassie Clarke once again showed her ability to carry the team with a season high 51 assists, aiding the offense to 60 kills. Dinkelacker led the defense with 26 digs while Cassie and Grace added 16 and 14, respectively. The Redhawks finished the Classic in second place with a 2-1 record.
After winning six of the eight sets they had played coming into the showdown Saturday night, the Bills were swept by the South Florida Bulls, 20-25, 21-25, 25-27. Clarke once again aided the offense with 28 assists. The Bills and Bulls were tied six times the first set and nine times the third set, but the Billikens could never pull away. The Bulls lead the entire second set.
“Clearly we were disappointed in our last match loss. We were close, we just made some mistakes on some plays and that is a good South Florida team. We are going to need to play a bit better to beat those really good teams,” Miller commented after SLU fell to South Florida. “We’re encouraged about what our team has accomplished the past few weekends, so we are looking forward to our next weekend at Northwestern.”
The Billikens head to Northwestern University to compete in the Wildcat Classic next weekend, where they are slated to play Western Michigan, Northwestern and Delaware. The following week the team will be opening up Atlantic 10 play in Cincinnati against Xavier University. After two weeks on the road, the Bills will be home again on September 28 against Duquesne.
