Herd All-American volleyball player prepped for rivalry
By Chuck Landon, Daily Mail sportswriter
HUNTINGTON -- Three things are vitally important to Marshall volleyball star Kelly-Anne Billingy.
No. 1 -- Her family back home in Trinidad.
No. 2 -- Her teammates that have become her family here.
No. 3 -- Her unbeaten streak against West Virginia University.
The latter is especially important this week because the senior All-American will be facing the Mountaineers for the final time in her career when the in-state rivals square off in the Blue-Green Volleyball Classic Friday at the Charleston Civic Center.
"Oh, yeah, it would be nice to graduate being 4-0 against WVU," said Billingy, a 6-foot-3 outside hitter. "It's a big rivalry, obviously, because it's Marshall-WVU. It's always great going in having the confidence that we've beaten them three times in the past.
"I know this is a different year, but the team is fired up and ready to go. We just can't wait to play them."
What makes the Blue-Green Classic even better is the timing of the Marshall versus WVU matchup -- a mere six days after the football teams met in the Friends of Coal Bowl resulting in a 48-23 Mountaineer win.
"The hype about the whole WVU football game is still pretty much in the air," said Billingy. "We're going to take our feelings from that into this week of practice. I know the team is fired up to play Friday. We especially get fired up to play WVU.
"Ah, it's crazy."
That's an apt description of Billingy's volleyball career at Marshall. Not only did she become the first volleyball All-American in Marshall history as a freshman, she duplicated and, then, triplicated the distinction as a sophomore and junior.
"It's exciting and humbling, kind of," said Billingy, who has 1,914 career kills. "It's putting me up there with some of the people I look up to in volleyball. It's kind of great to be recognized, but sometimes it's a little bit of pressure because I feel like I have to live up to this reputation.
"But it drives me to be better every day."
Billingy's hopes and dreams weren't nearly that lofty when she first arrived here from the Caribbean.
"Not really," she said. "I just came to college and fell in love with the sport again and with my teammates and just had fun playing. And it's just because I've played with such great girls the past three years. They've made my job so much easier. I don't know what I'd do without them."
