Freshman libero Cayce Chaykowski has not let first season jitters, or the transition to college stop her from becoming a force to be reckoned with on the court. She has played in all but three sets so far in her freshman campaign and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.

  She earned the nod of A-10 Rookie of the Week for the week of Sept. 24-30 for her efforts against two conference teams—VCU and Davidson—last weekend.

  Chaykowski averaged 6.71 digs per set in the two matches with 17 digs against VCU followed by a career high 30 digs in their win over Davidson.

  She is currently fifth in the conference in digs per set, averaging about 4.38 on the season.

  Chaykowski, a native of Henderson, Kentucky, started playing volleyball in fourth grade. She became a utility player, and eventually captain, for her high school team where she was able to play libero, outside hitter and setter.

  Choosing SLU seemed to be a somewhat easy decision for Chaykowski because she “loved the coaches, girls and SLU itself.”

  Playing a sport at SLU has opened up so many opportunities for Chaykowski, including playing in Chaifetz Arena.

  “All arenas are different and Chaifetz [is] such a cool place to play in,” she said. “It [is] definitely one of the largest crowds I’ve ever played in front of.”

  Not only does she get to play in front of bigger crowds, but Chaykowski said her favorite part about being a SLU student-athlete is access the fueling station in Chaifetz Arena, a small room for athletes to get healthy snacks in the mornings during the week.

  Despite that fact that she is only about half way into her first season as a Billiken, Chaykowski said she already has some wonderful memories with her teammates. Her favorite thus far is “spending time with [her] teammates at the [Baltimore] Ravens football game,” an extra experience the team got while playing conference games in Washington.

  Chaykowski is looking forward to growing with her teammates to continue beating teams in the A-10.

  The volleyball team has the goal of making it to the A-10 tournament for the sixth year in a row and Chaykowski’s personal goal is “to give everything that [she has] every single game or practice for [her] teammates.

  She attributes her personal success to her parents because they “have done everything that [she] ever needed to be able to play college volleyball.”

  After college, she hopes to either be a Division I volleyball coach or to own her own volleyball club.