Nov. 24, 2009
This Week: No. 22 Saint Louis (23-7, 14-1 Atlantic 10) will look to build its resumé for a potential at-large NCAA Tournament bid when it hosts Middle Tennessee State Saturday, Nov. 28, at 3 p.m. at Chaifetz Pavilion. The match was originally slated to start at 7 p.m.
For Tickets: Tickets may be purchased in advance at the Chaifetz Arena box office, by phone at (314) 977-4SLU or online at www.slubillikens.com. On match days, tickets will be available only at the entrance to Chaifetz Pavilion. Ticket prices are $7 for adults, $5 for youth. Groups of 20 or more receive discounted tickets for $3 apiece. Students with a valid SLU ID card receive free admission. All seating is general admission.
Following the Action: SLU's home matches will be video streamed live through Billiken All-Access at www.slubillikens.com. Subscriptions are available for $79.95 annually or $9.95 a month. Gametracker for all home matches will also be available free of charge on Saint Louis' web site.
Last Time Out: Saint Louis won the first two sets, but ultimately suffered a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to Dayton in the Atlantic 10 Championship final last Sunday in Dayton. The Billikens swept Xavier in the semifinals to advance to the title match.
About the Billikens: Saint Louis had its 10-match winning streak snapped by Dayton in the A-10 Championship final last Sunday. Senior outside hitter Bridget Fonke leads the Bills with 3.36 kills per set, 43 service aces and a .276 hitting percentage. Senior right-side hitter Sammi McCloud has posted a team-best 52 blocks, she follows Fonke with 3.20 kills per set and is tied for second with 28 service aces. Senior setter Whitney Roth directs the offense with a league-best 11.19 assists per set and is second on the team with 2.76 digs per set. Sophomore outside hitter Whitney Behrens leading the way with 3.22 digs per set. SLU is 21st nationally in the latest NCAA statistical report with a .264 hitting percentage.
About the Blue Raiders: Middle Tennessee State (25-8, 15-2 Sun Belt) earned its fourth straight NCAA Tournament bid by winning the Sun Belt Championship last weekend. The Blue Raiders defeated UALR, Western Kentucky and Florida International en route to the crown. MTSU packs a one-two punch offensively with senior outside hitter Ashley Mead leading the way with 3.49 kills per set and junior outside hitter Izabela Kozon adding 3.43 kills per set. Redshirt sophomore middle blocker Stacy Oladinni is the only other player averaging better than 2.00 kills per set with 2.69 kills per set, while hitting at a team-best .404 clip, which ranks seventh in the nation. Senior Leslie Clark, who dishes out a team-best 10.99 assists per set, has guided the Blue Raiders to the eighth-best hitting percentage (.286) in Division I this season. Senior libero Ashley Waugh collects a team-high 3.29 digs per set, while Kozon is the only other player with more than 2.00 digs per set with 2.32. Senior middle blocker Janay Yancey posts a team-high 1.19 blocks per set, while Oladinni and junior outside hitter Alyssa Wistrick add 0.88 and 0.86 blocks per set, respectively. Matt Peck is in his sixth season at the helm of the MTSU program with a 114-45 record. His career mark is 657-241 in 26 seasons. The series between Saint Louis and Middle Tennessee State is tied at 3-3. The Billikens escaped the last two meetings with 3-2 victories.
Tourney Time: The Billikens will learn their NCAA Tournament fate Sunday, Nov. 29, when the 64-team NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship field is announced on ESPNews at 2 p.m. (CT). SLU will be looking for its first at-large bid after earning automatic bids in 2006 and 2008.
All-Championship Accolades: Senior Bridget Fonke were also named to the All-Championship team.
A-10 Honors: The Billikens swept A-10 Coach, Player and Setter of the Year honors for the second straight season when the league announced its end-of-the-season honors last week. Senior Bridget Fonke landed on the A-10 first team for the second straight season, while junior Whitney Behrens achieved honorable mention status. Behrens and Roth were also named to the All-Academic squad.
Rank and File: Saint Louis has been listed among the AVCA Top 25 since earning the program's first ranking Oct. 20, 2008. The Bills, who have been ranked in 22 straight polls, peaked at No. 16 in the Sept. 7, 2009 poll.
Racking Up the Wins: SLU has put together four straight 20-win campaigns for just the second time in program history. The Billikens won 22 matches in 2006, 23 contests in 2007 and 29 tilts last season. The only other time Saint Louis achieved the feat was from 1987-90 when it recorded 20, 31, 28 and 22 victories. The 2009 seniors are the third-winningest class is program history with 97 victories and counting. Only the senior classes from 1983 (103 wins) and 1990 (101 wins) were victorious in more contests.
Hittin' the Books: Senior Whitney Roth earned a spot on the Academic All-District second team.
Double Trouble: Four members of the Billiken squad have combined to post 24 double-doubles this season. Bridget Fonke and Megan Boken have recorded six, five and four kill-dig double-doubles, respectively.
Head Coach Anne Kordes: Head coach Anne Kordes is in her sixth season at Saint Louis with a 126-61 (.674) career ledger. The 1998 Louisville graduate enjoyed her winningest campaign as a head coach in 2008 when she guided the Bills to 29 wins, their second A-10 West regular-season crown, their second A-10 Championship title and NCAA Tournament bid, and the first unbeaten conference slate since 1997. Kordes earned CVU.com (Collegiate Volleyball Update) National Coach of the Year honors and was named AVCA Northeast Region Coach of the Year last season. In 2006, she led SLU to its first NCAA Volleyball Tournament appearance after her squad captured its first A-10 Championship crown and tied for the A-10 West regular-season title. Kordes is only the second coach in program history to earn more than 100 victories at SLU, and she has tied the best winning percentage by a SLU coach. The three-time A-10 Coach of the Year (2006, 2008, 2009) is joined on the sideline by assistant coaches Kyle Walton and Corey Arbini and director of volleyball operations Andy Halaz.
Bringin' Da Fonke: Senior Bridget Fonke, who ranks 28th in the nation in service aces per set, recently moved into second place on the program's career service aces list. Her nine aces in the last five matches brought her career total to 153. Kim Moorleghen (1987-90) holds the record with 216. On SLU's other career charts, Fonke is eighth with 1,240 kills and 14th with 47 solo blocks.
Roth & Roll: Senior Whitney Roth is just the fourth player from a current A-10 program to compile 5,000 career assists. Roth, whose 11.19 assists per set rank 22nd in the NCAA through matches of Nov. 22, is the only setter in school history ranked among SLU's career top 20 in assists, service aces, digs and block assists. Last season, she became the program's all-time assist leader (5,368) and has over 2,000 more assists than the player in the No. 2 spot. She is 13th on the career digs list (981), 16th on the career block assists chart (160) and 19th with 85 career aces. Roth has also played in 124 matches, which is fourth on SLU's career list.
She's a 10: Senior Sammi McCloud, one of the most decorated players in program history, has worked her way into SLU's career top 10 in five statistical categories. She ranks fifth with 1,391 kills, sixth with 1,124 digs, tied for eighth with 117 service aces and ninth with 244 block assists and 265 total blocks. The only other players in Billiken history ranked among the top 10 in each of those five categories are Colleen Hunter (1999-2002) and Julie Tretten (1994-97). Additionally, McCloud is just the fifth player in program history who is a member of both the 1,000-kill and 1,000-dig clubs.
Can You Dig It?: Senior Whitney Behrens became the program's career digs leader at Fordham Sept. 26. SLU's digs standard is 1,653 and counting. Behrens eclipsed Irene Haugh's mark of 1,474 career digs, which had stood since 1990.
Around the A-10: Saint Louis enters its final regular-season match ranked first among A-10 teams with a .264 hitting percentage, 13.97 kills, 12.71 assists and 1.56 service aces per set in all matches. Individually, five players rank among the top 10 in the league statistically. Bridget Fonke leads all players with 0.43 service aces per set, and she is third with 4.07 points per set, fourth with 3.36 kills per set and 10th with a .276 hitting percentage. Sammi McCloud is fifth with 3.84 points and 3.20 kills per set, and tied for seventh with 0.31 service aces per set.
A Formidable Foe: After playing one of the toughest schedules in the country in 2008, Saint Louis is at it again in 2009. The Billikens took on five teams ranked among the nation's top 15 in the first three weeks of the season. SLU faced top-ranked Penn State in the Active Ankle Challenge during the season-opening weekend. At the Hawaiian Airlines Classic Sept. 3-6, the Bills battled No. 2 Texas, No. 4 Hawai'i and No. 10 California. Saint Louis played No. 14 Illinois Sept. 12 in the State Farm Classic. Four of those teams are among the top eight in the latest NCAA RPI report released Nov. 23, with Hawai'i coming in at No. 22 and Dayton at No. 23. SLU is No. 29.
Billikens Sign Five for 2010: SLU head coach Anne Kordes recently announced that five student-athletes have committed to play for the Billikens starting next season. The players who have signed a National Letter of Intent to attend the University and compete for SLU are 6-foot-1 outside/right-side hitter Lauren Baumet (Brownsburg, Ind. / Brownsburg), 5-foot-11 outside hitter Andrea Beaty (Pacific, Mo. / Washington), 6-foot right-side hitter Emma Goldschmidt (O'Fallon, Ill. / O'Fallon Township), 5-foot-11 setter Hannah Kvitle (Quincy, Ill. / Quincy Senior) and 6-foot-3 middle blocker Kelsey Toebben (Jefferson City, Mo. / Helias). Each player will have four years of eligibility beginning with the 2010 season.
On the Go with Gaillot: Sophomore defensive specialist Ashley Gaillot will keep a blog this season called "On the Go with Gaillot" at www.slubillikens.com. Her blog will provide fans with a weekly behind-the-scenes look at the 2009 Billiken volleyball team.
