The Saint Louis University Volleyball team began their season 4-5, and has one more week of play before their conference schedule begins. The Billikens were ranked No. 5 in the Atlantic 10 preseason poll. Head coach Andrea Beaty has shown that her team has potential but their lack of experience has cost them.
Coach Beaty retained exactly half of last year’s roster, with nine out of the 10 newly filled roster spots being filled by freshmen. Many of these freshmen showcased impressive potential, which, combined with veteran experience, has on occasion put together a win, but on other occasions faltered, leading to an unfortunate loss.
Four freshmen in particular have made themselves mainstays in Beaty’s rotation, outside hitter Addy Brus, middle blocker Kayla Jansen, outer hitter Tea Kalajdzic and defensive specialist Chloe Maughan. All four have had critical moments across the three invitationals the Billikens played in so far. They have proven that they will be core pieces of Beaty’s team going forward.
Brus won the A-10 Freshman of the Week Award for week one. Brus leads the A-10 in total points with 146.5. She is averaging 4.44 points per set, just behind Dayton star Lexie Almodovar, the reigning A-10 player of the year who is averaging 4.79 per set. Jansen has shown off her defensive potential, with 0.94 blocks per set, landing just outside of the conference’s top 10 in the category. The St. Louis native sent eight back against Arkansas State at the A-State Invitational. Kalajdzic is fourth on the team in points per set, with 2.37. She is averaging a promising 2.17 kills per set, and threw down 14 against Illinois State in SLU’s Billiken Invitational. Maughan is averaging 1.6 digs per set, but her real impact is not reflected on the box score. During the Billiken Invitational she led multiple strong runs for the Billikens against each opponent.
Trinity Luckett, our breakout star, earned conference recognition by winning defensive player of the week for week two. Less than a third of the way through the season, the sophomore middle blocker is almost halfway to matching her digs total from last season. She is also on pace to greatly surpass her total blocks from last season. Luckett is currently third in the conference in total blocks with 37. She is averaging 1.12 blocks per set, an improvement of almost 0.3 over last season. Luckett’s offensive output has also notably increased, improving from 1.29 kills per set to 2.03. Overall she has grown from 1.78 points per set to 2.68 this season.
The Billikens will play in the Kwik Star Klassic in Coralville, Iowa before beginning conference play against Fordham in the Bronx, New York City.