When you first pick up a sport as a young kid, it’s probably because your parents need a break. Twice a week, for an hour or so, you are someone else’s responsibility. It’s something to do after school or on the weekends to make friends and get out all that pent up kid energy. What you don’t realize as a kid is that before you know it, you’ll be 22 and the sport has become part of your identity. 

My fun fact in every awkward first class introduction during syllabus week was, “Hi, I’m Erin and I’m on the field hockey team.” I had SLUFH #28 in my Instagram bio starting on the day I committed in September of 2016. My profile picture on LinkedIn is my roster picture. I played my last game in a Billikens uniform on April 10 and now I don’t know how to not be an athlete. 

For many people, sports are just games that are entertaining to watch because of the amazing athletic abilities of those partaking. It’s something to do on a Friday night while drinking a beer with some friends after a tough day at work. Yet, for me, sport is so much more than just a game because my time as a competitive athlete has been the most rewarding experience of my life. 

In 14 years I never played in front of a massive crowd cheering or taunting, never scored the game winning goal and never won a championship, but what I DID do is wake up at 3 a.m. to catch flights, sacrifice school breaks for tournaments and meet some of the coolest, most hardworking people in the world. I got to wear a blue jersey that said “BILLIKENS” across the front and feel a part of a family. On the hardest days, it humbled and motivated me to remember that there are girls around the country that would give so much to be in my shoes. 

Looking back, I have played field hockey for longer than I haven’t, but now my stick is hung up and I don’t know the next time I’m going to get the chance to use it again. The culmination of senior year is hard for everyone no matter what you did or didn’t participate in during your time in college, but for me it’s not just the end of college, it’s like breaking up with my first love. 

Field hockey has seen me through the most challenging times in my life and it has always been an escape when like gets hard. Between the white lines, I was strong, confident, powerful and genuinely happy. Not only was it my escape, it taught me everything I know about being a teammate, a friend, a mentor and a competitor. It taught me to get up out of bed even on the days you know are going to be hard, because it’s going to make you one percent better than you were the day before. I learned that you’ll never regret a workout, no matter how hard it hurts in the middle of it. Most importantly, I learned that the relationships you make are what truly matter in the end. In 10 years no one is going to care what the record of the 2021 SLU field hockey team was, but I know I’ll still have the love and support of the people I shared the field with no matter how far apart we may be. 

Even though I know what my next steps are in my life and my career, it is going to be incredibly hard to say goodbye to my time as an athlete. Representing Saint Louis University as a student-athlete was a great joy and honor and it’s something I will never forget. When I was a sophomore, my class sat down and decided that our goal was to “leave the jersey better than we found it.” I can say with complete confidence that we achieved that goal and I am so excited to watch our program only go up from here. Field hockey will always have a huge place in my heart and I am eternally grateful for everything this sport has given me. 

I may not get up to go to practice every morning, but I will always be a field hockey player. 

With Love, 

Erin McClelland

SLUFH #28

One of the best parts of March Madness every year is the Cinderella team that always emerges. You might remember VCU’s run to the Final Four in 2011 as an 11 seed or Loyola-Chicago’s trip to the Final Four in 2018, also as an 11 seed. While not everyone has the powers of Sister Jean like the Ramblers, the 2021 tournament isn’t short of any potential Cinderella squads. 

In the first round alone, nine double-digit seeds came away with a victory, busting just about every bracket created in the opening 24 hours of the tournament. Of those nine first round upsets, three managed to sneak into the Sweet 16 with upset wins, and UCLA got in over 14-seeded Abilene Christian, a team that made the second round after the biggest win in school history. 

It was the first time an Abilene Christian team had ever won a game in March Madness, a feat they achieved with a 53-52 win over in-state competition, Texas, by converting on two foul shots with 1.2 seconds remaining. 

According to the NCAA website, after just day one, only 121 perfect brackets remained across the five most popular bracket games—NCAA, ESPN, CBS, Yahoo and Sports Illustrated. Boydsbets.com estimates that roughly 70 million brackets are filled out every year. By that number, after just one day, 0.00017 percent of brackets remained perfect and it didn’t take long into day two to break some more hearts. 

But who of the four double-digit seeds will continue into the Elite 8 this weekend? It seems exceedingly unlikely that two 11 seeds, UCLA and Syracuse, will knock out 2 seeds Alabama and Houston, respectively, or that 15 seed Oral Roberts will surpass 3 seed Arkansas. This is just the second time in history that a 15 seeded squad has earned a berth in the Sweet 16. A 15 seed has never made it to the Elite 8. 

Another matchup to watch this weekend is going to be 8 seed Loyola-Chicago versus 12 seed Oregon State. Loyola-Chicago is riding into the weekend off knocking out 1 seed, Illinois, a heavily picked favorite to win the whole thing. This isn’t the first time the Ramblers have made a name for themselves as a Cinderella team, and it isn’t the first time 101-year-old Sister Jean has seen her squad knock off top teams. 

In their run to the Final Four in 2018, Loyola-Chicago defeated 6 seed Miami, 3 seed Tennessee, 7 seed Nevada and 9 seed Kansas State before they fell to 3 seed Michigan. This weekend they will actually be the higher seed when they take on Oregon State. 

The most interesting part of the bracket this year comes from the Midwest side. The remaining seeds are Houston (2), Loyola-Chicago (8), Syracuse (11) and Oregon State (12). It has been not only a bracket buster, but a bracket obliterator. 

It makes you question, what is in the water in Indianapolis for these lower seeded teams? Does it have something to do with the shortened season due to COVID-19? Were these teams seeded poorly by the selection committee? We’ll never know the answer to these questions but it has sure made for an exceedingly interesting outcome to watch for over the next few weeks. 

At this point, it might just be easier to cheer for underdogs and subtly wish for the downfall of Gonzaga, Baylor, Michigan—the remaining 1 seeds. How can you not secretly hope Oral Roberts will be the first ever 15 seed in the Elite 8? Before this started, I bet many people didn’t even know where Oral Roberts is even located, and now they are on the bandwagon because it’s teams like this that make sports so entertaining. 

No matter who you have winning, this year it’s more about just being grateful the tournament is even on. Now that we know what it’s like to go a year without the Madness, let’s just hope it never happens again. 

While the NCAA is a not-for-profit association of member institutions, it’s no secret that the March Madness tournament brings in billions of dollars every year. The redistribution model is built so that the money left over after paying the necessary employees in the headquarter office gets redistributed to the member institutions via their conference offices. The redistribution isn’t perfectly equitable between conferences as it is set up to reward the conferences that perform the best in the men’s basketball tournament. That’s what makes the Power Five so powerful. They have a number of schools that perform well, meaning they get more funding from the NCAA, which then means they can recruit top talent, and thus the cycle of power continues. 

The man that sits atop of it all is NCAA President Mark Emmert. Emmert has been the head of the NCAA for 11 years, coming to the post after a stint as the president of the University of Washington, his alma mater. Throughout his tenure, he has advocated for student-athletes in the areas of sexual assault prevention, greater support for student-athletes, providing more opportunities for student-athletes to participate in their own governance and many other areas. Yet, this week, during the first week of the March Madness basketball tournament, all of these achievements have been quickly overshadowed by a reckless and potentially career defining mistake. 

Across every social media platform, the NCAA has been ridiculed for their inequitable handling of the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. An Oregon women’s basketball player, Sedona Prince, released a TikTok that has now surpassed nine million views. The video showed the difference in weight rooms between the men’s tournament in Indianapolis and women’s tournament in San Antonio. The release of the TikTok started an outcry of women’s sports activists across the country demanding that the women receive not only more weights and equipment, but respect for the hard work that they put in to reach such a milestone in their careers. 

Not only was there outrage about the weight room, but also about the other inequities in resources and facilities between the two tournaments. The men’s teams were getting buffet dinners every night while the women were being served individually packaged mystery meat. The men received branded swag bags filled with items to keep themselves occupied while stuck in their hotel rooms between games and practices, while the women got generic bags with a few items. Worst of all, there was a difference in the kinds of COVID-19 tests that were being administered to the athletes at the two different tournaments. The men were getting a more accurate PCR test while the women were getting a daily antigen test that is considered to be less accurate. If a women’s basketball player tested positive, they would then confirm the positive using the PCR test. Not only were the women being treated as unequal in their sport, but they were also being treated unequal in regards to their health. 

Georgia Tech women’s basketball head coach, Nell Fortner, released a statement saying, “To the NCAA: Thank You!” Her statement came following her team’s upset win over West Virginia. She said, “Thank you for using the three biggest weeks of your organization’s year to expose exactly how you feel about women’s basketball—an afterthought.” She went on to sarcastically thank the NCAA and President Emmert for outing themselves for their sexist actions and decisions to blatantly ignore their commitment to supporting student-athletes. She calls them out for not recognizing women’s athletics, specifically basketball, for the valuable asset that it is. 

Fortner wasn’t the only influential voice speaking out about the injustice. South Carolina women’s basketball coach, Dawn Staley, also released a statement on Twitter with the hashtag “WHATMATTERS” calling out Emmert and his staff specifically saying, “Mark Emmert and his team point blank chose to create [the disparities]. The real issue is not the weights or the ‘swag’ bags; it’s that they did not think or do not think that the women’s players ‘deserve’ the same amenities as the men.” 

The most ironic part about this entire event is that it falls in Women’s History Month. Not only that, but it is just three months away from the 50th anniversary of the passing of Title IX. 50 years later and female athletes are still dealing with the same B.S. When is enough finally going to be enough? 

In conjunction with all of the inequity looming over the tournaments, another pressing issue for the NCAA is the current discussions over the name, image and likeness (NIL) of student-athletes. Individual states are starting to pass laws allowing student-athletes to make money off of their name, image and likeness, with Florida leading the way establishing that their law will go into effect in 2021. California’s similar law won’t go into effect until 2023. 

Three current men’s basketball student-athletes, Michigan’s Isaiah Livers, Iowa’s Jordan Bohannon and Rutgers’ Geo Baker, got together to start a protest called #NotNCAAProperty. The intention of the movement is to bring attention to the NIL conversation and continue moving it forward. The three players sent a letter to President Emmert asking for a meeting with him, state lawmakers and members of President Biden’s administration. 

Emmert’s response was to postpone the meeting until after the March Madness tournament, infuriating the players who were willing to make time to meet while trying to compete for a national championship. They responded by criticizing the decision to wait two weeks and said, “Can you please explain what you will be doing over the next two weeks that is more important than addressing these matters?” 

Overall, the past week of March Madness has been nothing short of entertaining. There’s been crazy upsets in the first two rounds, but the tournament this year hasn’t just been about the product on the court. It has been about the life of a student-athlete when they are not on the court and President Emmert has been the center of the issues. 

All of the decisions that have been made surrounding the basketball championships this year have come back to President Emmert and have become potentially career defining decisions. While he has done good things in the past, it seems hard to believe that he can come back from this. NCAA critics are calling for him to step down, but there is a precedent for him to make mistakes and face no repercussions. Is this ultimately the final straw for President Emmert?

Today’s world of entertainment has become one of streaming services, with new companies popping up to undermine cable companies everywhere. Fewer and fewer people are keeping cable and moving to individual services so they can pick and choose what they want to pay for and what they don’t need. For some, the one thing keeping them holding onto their cable is sports. Sports are unique due to the fact that they are broadcasted live, making them less than ideal for streaming services. 

You’re in luck: UNews Sports has done the research for you to find the best places to watch your favorite teams and sports in this evolving entertainment environment. 

For the college sports fan… ESPN+

ESPN+ is the best option for the college sports fanatic, especially if you are a fan of the Billikens. The Atlantic 10 Conference has a deal with ESPN to broadcast many of their games. It is the best way to watch all your favorite Billiken teams that aren’t on national television frequently. 

For just $5.99 per month, subscribers can get access to a multitude of live games of just about any NCAA sport you could imagine. Another bonus to this membership is access to ESPN 30 for 30 documentaries. The only downside is that the channels that ESPN+ supports require a cable login to get access. This is not a streaming service to replace cable, but instead puts all the ESPN channels in one place. 

As a bonus, since ESPN is owned by Disney, there is now a bundle that will get you Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu (with commercials) for just $12.99 per month. This would be a great family package, especially for one with a college sports fan. 

For the mega sports fan… fuboTV

fuboTV markets itself as the best service for sports fans. For $64.99 per month and no cable requirement, they offer over 100 channels, covering both sports and entertainment. Any major sporting event can be seen through fuboTV, but it won’t guarantee smaller events, like Billiken women’s soccer games. If you’re someone who wants to watch the big games in professional sports but don’t care too much about what’s going on in college soccer or lacrosse, this might be the service for you. 

fuboTV doesn’t only do sports. They also have all the major entertainment and news channels that you would be able to get from a cable network. All together, this is a really good option to replace cable asyou wouldn’t be sacrificing too many channels you are accustomed to. 

For the casual sports fan… Hulu 

Hulu has been doing a lot of advertising lately about how they now have live sports. Hulu has positioned itself in the same vein as Netflix with original content and a selection of shows and movies for the viewers to choose from. By adding live sports, they have now put themselves into a market that Netflix has yet to break into. 

While Hulu has live sports, it’s not for the die hard sports fan. For $64.99 per month, the same as fuboTV, members get access to live sports, as well as their entire collection of shows and movies. This package is better suited for the entertainment lover who happens to also want to watch sports occasionally. The sports you are able to see is dependent on your location, meaning you may not always be able to watch your favorite team if you are out of town. 

For the budgeting sports fan… Vidgo

Vidgo currently has a deal where the first two months are just $10 before it hikes back up to $55 per month. This is a bit cheaper than it’s closest competitor, fuboTV, but it doesn’t have as many channels. For someone who wants the basic channels, this is the best bet. You won’t get everything, but that’s what you can expect from a cheaper option. You’ll have the basics for news, entertainment and sports, but if you are balling on a budget, this might be for you. If nothing else, at least you have two months to try it out for a cheaper price before really committing to going all in. 

For the cheapest sports fan… Sling

Sling doesn’t seem like the greatest investment for a sports fan because they have divided their service into two groups, blue and orange. Not only is their service divided, but their sports channels are as well in the attempt to encourage subscribers to buy both. They do have a deal that if you purchase both it’s 25 percent off, but that doesn’t seem like enough of an incentive. Sling blue has NFL network, yet Sling orange has ESPN. For someone who wants to watch all the major sporting events, this probably isn’t the one for you, but if you are happy to just have a game on in the background, the $35 per month might be worth it. 

The cancellation of both spring and fall sports in 2020 was devastating to not only the budget of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), but to the athletes and coaches that spend their entire year training and preparing for that competition season. Fans missed out on conference tournaments, March Madness, the College World Series, and everything else, with the exception of football, this past fall. 

In the desire to watch live sports again, it’s easy to forget that there are student athletes, coaches, trainers, and administrators being put at risk to ensure these games go on. The everyday routine activities that athletes were accustomed to pre-COVID no longer exists and has been replaced with outrageous amounts of COVID tests, socially distanced practices, small group sessions, limited access to coaches outside of normal practice times and extremely restrictive team rules. The work-school-life balance of student athletes has disintegrated in front of them and many are left to see their experience as all sports, little to no social life and a strain on their academic life. 

Saint Louis University is one of the many institutions that has decided to allow every sport it sponsors to participate in athletics this spring. SLU sponsors 18 sports, all of which are currently competing both against other universities, but also with each other for space in Chaifetz Arena. The athletic department has one weight room, one training room, two practice courts and one main court within the arena for all the sports to share. On top of that, there are occupancy restrictions that every room has to follow— even though 18 teams are trying to get into the training room at the same time, only four athletes and four trainers are allowed in the room at a time. 

While scheduling conflicts create an issue, the quantity of COVID tests endured by in-season athletes per NCAA and SLU rules is vast. Indoor sports have the most because they are considered at highest risk, while outdoor sports have slightly different quotas since they are seen as slightly less at risk. Every week athletes check their emails to see if they won this week’s lottery for another COVID test. 

All of these new rules and procedures are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the new life of a student athlete. It’s mentally exhausting and physically draining. For months, fall athletes teetered between “we’ll have a season” and “we won’t.” Not only were they concerned about whether they would even play, they also had to consider their own personal views on whether it was even ethical to be playing during a pandemic. 

In a survey of SLU student athletes, one third of the responses said they believed it was unethical for sports to be happening during a pandemic. One student athlete elaborated that, “no one from our team is trying to turn professional and we are doing this for ourselves. The pandemic [is] a much wider issue [and we must] put personal enjoyment aside.” Another simply said, “there are more important things than volleyball.” 

While 15 athletes believe it to be unethical to be playing right now, the majority believe that there is nothing wrong with continuing athletics with proper precautions in place. One said, “while life should be altered to adjust and be considerate to people of high risk, life must also go on.” Similarly, one said, “we have learned enough about this pandemic to know that our age group is low risk, and sports are a huge [part of our identity]. We lose so much physically and mentally without them.” 

Many SLU athletes made comments about how they understand the importance of being safe and cautious, but that without the ability to play their sport, it would be even more detrimental to their mental health than their concern of the pandemic.

91% of the student-athletes said that the pandemic has affected their mental health in some way. While this is a staggering number, a surprising almost 47% said that they could identify something positive that has come out of COVID in their sport. This shows the power of an optimistic mindset and that SLU’s athletes tend to find ways to see the bright side. Some noted that they get more time to spend with their teammates, others recognized that they are more appreciative of the opportunity just to play, while others see the extra year of eligibility the NCAA has extended to every athlete as a positive opportunity to continue their education. 

A common positive that athletes pointed out was the opportunity to grow as a team in the unforeseen off season. The ability to practice, despite a lack of competition, helped the fall athletes specifically work out as a team in a way that they have never experienced before. Usually, freshmen are thrown into the mix and competition before really getting time to develop as a college athlete, but this year, fall 2020 was a chance for them to get to know their teammates and systems of play before stepping into competition this spring, an advantage that upperclassmen never got to experience. 

Another factor that largely impacts the mental health of a student athlete is their relationship with their coach. The athletes were asked whether or not they believe that their coach cares more about playing their sport than the mental health of their student athletes. Shockingly, ten athletes said they agreed with this statement. It’s discouraging to think that there are athletes who feel so unsupported by their coaches during this time because athletics should never be more important than the student athletes who are participating in them. It’s feelings like this that lead to burnout and the loss of interest in being a student athlete. 

The biggest impact that student athletes have seen is from the new restrictions that teams have outside of athletics department-wide COVID protocols. There are rules that every team has to follow put in place by the department, but there are also team restrictions that are individualized to each team. The area of an athlete’s life that has been most affected by these individual team restrictions has been their social life. Athletes were asked to rate on a scale of one to five how much their social, personal and academic lives have been impacted with five being the most restrictive. The mean for social life was just shy of a four. Personal life followed very close behind with a mean of 3.8 and academic life was still above half at 2.58. Often athletes look for these other outlets to give them something to look forward to outside of their sport. With these new team restrictions their outlets are either greatly affected, or completely removed from their life. 

Most athletes believe that the restrictions their teams have set are fair, but others believe them to be too restrictive and have said that they do not intend to follow their team’s restrictions to a T. This lack of unity amongst the department and even amongst teammates has created an interesting dynamic because it starts to put doubt in the ability to trust one’s teammates. One athlete disclosed, “I am concerned about how seriously one particular person on my team is handling the pandemic.” 

Not only are some athletes doubting their own teammates, there is also concern about how other universities are handling their protocols. Part of being an athlete is traveling and playing other teams in various places around the country. One athlete said, “[I’m] worried about teams that aren’t being as careful as [we are].” 

SLU has no control over the protocols of other universities and that can be a hard pill to swallow for athletes who are accustomed to being in control of themselves and their environments. Usually when a coach says “jump” an athlete is expected to respond with “how high?”. With COVID, there is now a lot more freedom for athletes to say “no, thank you.” Athletes can choose to opt out at any point, yet it appears as though that is not the method most athletes choose to take. They have decided to grin and bear whatever challenges are thrown at them, sometimes at the very last minute, just to go on playing for the sake of their mental health. 

It’s important to remember that the star athletes seen on TV for the entertainment of college sports fans are people with real concerns about putting themselves and their teammates at risk every day. Now is the time to find ways to continue to support them and be listeners of their concerns. NCAA sports are going to continue on as much as possible, and sometimes there needs to be a reminder about the importance of the people behind the game. 

The SLU softball team is going into their final series of the regular season in Olean, N.Y. to take on the St. Bonaventure Bonnies this weekend. The Bills have won five of their last seven games, all five wins being against conference teams. The team is currently in sixth place in the conference, the last qualifying spot for the conference tournament next week at UMass. The Bills will look to solidify their spot in postseason this weekend.

Last weekend the team traveled to Philadelphia, Pa. to visit the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and to take the series over the St. Joseph’s Hawks, 2-1. The Bills swept the doubleheader, winning the opener in a close 6-4 game, followed by a run-rule 12-0 blowout to close out the evening. In the doubleheader, Sadie Wise and Kaylyn Breitbach sent two bombs each to lead the hitters for the day. Wise also hit her single season record-setting 17th double in the first game of the day.

In the second game of the day, Wise, Breitbach and Mackenzie Lawson hit homers to drive in eight of the 12 runs in the game. Kaylea Chappelle led the defense with a fantastic game from the circle, giving up only three hits and one walk in the second game. The following day, the Hawks found their rhythm and run-ruled the Bills right back with an 8-0 win in five innings.  

The Billikens finished up their home schedule with a mid-week matchup with Southeast Missouri State falling in the game, and season series, to the Redhawks. The Redhawks took the early lead, jumping out to a 3-0 lead by the third inning. Despite the strong Billiken defense that was able to hold the Redhawks scoreless in the remaining four innings, they weren’t able to get their offense going to bring in more than a single run in the fifth on an RBI single from Wise. Freshman Chloe Wendling and Chappelle were able to both throw two scoreless innings in relief to keep the game within reach for the Bills.

The Bills look to sweep the Bonnies to secure their spot in the field for the A-10 Tournament for the seventh consecutive year. They are currently trailed by George Mason, who sits just one game behind the Billikens in the series with second place UMass in their way.

After taking their first conference series win over La Salle, the Billiken softball team dropped a mid-week two-game series to Dayton followed by a split two-game series against conference favorite, UMass. The win over UMass ended the Minutewomen’s 25-game conference win streak dating back to their conference title last spring. They took a break from their conference schedule to play a single game against SIU and fell to the Salukis in the midweek matchup.

The Bills went down three runs early in the top of the first inning and the Flyers were able to lengthen the lead to five in the second. SLU sophomore Kat Lane got the Bills on the board in the third with an RBI triple, and classmate Sadie Wise had an RBI single to pull the lead within three.

The Flyers scored again at the top of the fourth but Mackenzie Lawson’s solo bomb in the same frame kept the lead at three up until the seventh inning. The Billiken defense wasn’t able to keep Dayton off the plate and gave up another three runs before the game ended at 9-3 in favor of the visitors.

There was some defensive improvement during the Bills second attempt at the Flyers of the day, but the offense couldn’t keep up and SLU fell 7-3. Once again the Bills went down in the first inning, this time by two, and they weren’t able to keep the game within reach. After a fourth inning defensive struggle, the Bills trailed 7-1 until Allie Herron’s two-run homer that ended the scoring for good.

SLU followed up the struggle against Dayton with another conference loss to the conference favorite, UMass. Originally scheduled to be a doubleheader followed by a single game on Sunday, the unfortunate St. Louis weather cancelled one game and spontaneously made it a two-game series.

Like the previous games, the Billikens struggled to keep the Minutewomen off the board in the top of the first and they went down four runs. Gabbie Kowalik was able to get one back in the bottom half of the frame, but UMass continued their offensive strike and were able to bring the score to 8-1 by the fourth. Kaitlin Breitbach and Wise drove in a run in the sixth, and Kowalik nailed a two-run home run to bring the score to 8-5, but that ended the scoring and the Bills dropped the first game of the doubleheader.

In a déjà vu for the Billikens, UMass drove in four runs in the first, but this time the SLU bats caught fire and were able to tie it quickly on a two-run drive out of the park by Wise, followed closely by a similar bomb from Kowalik. Maria Connell put the Bills on top for good in the second with an RBI single that scored Lane.

SLU upped their lead with a Kristi Stevenson team-leading fourth home run that brought in two. UMass threatened in the final innings but Kaylea Chappelle was able to keep the go-head run from advancing for her first win of the season.

“Beating UMass was a big conference win for us,” said Wise. “It felt like everything was coming together for the team.”

The win ended UMass’ 25-game conference win streak and moved the Bills to 4-3 in conference on the season.

Following the big conference win, the Bills took on SIU in a one game non-conference midweek April 2. The Salukis came out on top, 6-0, scoring in the second, fifth and sixth innings, and kept the Bills off the board.

The Billikens will travel to our nation’s capital to take on George Washington in a three-game conference series this weekend. They return to Billiken Sports Center April 9 to take on UMKC at 4 p.m.

The Billikens softball team lost at Missouri State yesterday coming off of a loss and three home wins in the Billiken Spring Tournament last week. They have gotten off to a rocky start this year sitting at 5-18 going into their conference season.  

Last Friday, the Bills played a double-header at Billiken Sports Center in the second day of the tournament, the first game against Omaha, and the second against Northern Colorado.  Despite going down a pair of runs to the Omaha Mavericks at the top of the first inning, the bats were on fire for the Bills starting with Megan LoBianco’s two-run double in the bottom half of that inning. They had a five-run fifth inning to take the lead, one they held onto for the remainder of the game. The Bills went on to win the game, their third win of the year, 7-2 over the Mavericks. In the win, senior pitcher Kallen Loveless got a career-high 10 strikeouts, playing in all seven innings.

Later that day, the Bills regrouped to take on the Northern Colorado Bears. The scoring picked up right where it left off from the previous game, with the Bills driving in four runs in the first. After Mackenzie Lawson’s second home-run of the year, they were able to go up 7-1 in the third and then a Sadie Wise RBI made it 8-1. The Bears were able to post four runs in the seventh to try to mount a comeback, but sophomore pitcher Aubrey Hacke was up to the challenge and finished the game stranding the tying run on the bases. The final score was 8-5 and the Bills got their second win of the day and fourth on the season.

Following the two wins on Friday, the Bills continued the win streak into Sunday with a 6-4 victory over Detroit Mercy.  In the bottom of the first, LoBianco put the Bills up by two with a double. The Titans went ahead in the second with a three-run inning, but the Bills quickly responded by tying it up at three. The game continued with the back and forth scoring as Allie Herron brought in a runner on a sacrifice fly and Kristi Stevenson brought in the sixth run with an RBI single. Detroit Mercy had the tying runs on the plates but Loveless was able to work her way out of the inning giving the Bills their third win of the tournament.

In a mid-week matchup with Missouri State, the Bills traveled to Springfield to take on the Bears. The game is their last non-conference matchup before starting conference play this weekend at home at the Billiken Sports Center against La Salle. The team fell to the Bears 6-0. The Bills had five hits in the effort including a double from LoBianco. The instate rival continues to be a struggle for the Billikens to overcome and the all-time series fall very heavily in favor of Missouri State.

Freshman Kristi Stevenson was named Co-Rookie of the Week in the A-10 for the week of March 11. In five games, she led the team with a batting average of .667 (8-12) and slugging percentage of 1.083. The accolade is her first of the season and her career.

A-10 play starts for SLU softball this weekend with a double-header against La Salle on Saturday. Game times are 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. The third game of the series is Sunday at 12 p.m.