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SIU volleyball's Miller may be small, but she plays huge

When Erica Miller arrived on campus four years ago she immediately made a name for herself - albeit involuntarily.

The shortest player on the SIU volleyball team's roster at 5-foot-4, the Indiana native was dubbed "itty bitty" by her teammates during her freshman season.

Head coach Sonya Locke even joined in the name game, and eventually shortened Miller's moniker to "bitty," which she told Miller was a term for a short stick of dynamite.

"I don't know if it's true or not," Miller said. "She thought that kind of represented me."

While Miller is one of the smallest players in the Missouri Valley Conference, her numbers this season - double-figure digs in all but one match and six matches with 20 or more digs - have been in the upper tier of the conference.

"I know that more than likely every team that we play I'm probably going to be the smallest one on the court, but the way I approach the game is anything but small," Miller said. And the senior libero's attitude has manifested itself all season long.

She has the second-most total digs in the Valley for a Saluki squad that leads the conference in the category. Miller's 4.49 digs per game is good enough for fourth in the conference.

The libero position has always been played at the junior level and internationally, but came into existence just two years ago at the collegiate level.

Liberos are generally passing and defensive specialists, who are practically on the court the entire match and do not count as a substitution against their team.

Miller moved from defensive specialist to libero in her sophomore season. A fan of the traditional style of volleyball, it took her some time to get adjusted to the new position, but she eventually succumbed.

"As a defensive specialist before, I could only go in the game half as much as I do now," Miller said. "I like being able to be on the court virtually all the time."

Playing time was something Miller had not expected to receive her freshman season - at least not to the extent she was given. Miller played in all of the Salukis' 30 matches and started 11, despite playing behind defensive specialists Lisa Ciucci and Yoko Hattori.

"Even through being kind of scared and nervous my first year down here I think that it was a good learning experience," Miller said.

Miller's adjustment to collegiate volleyball was made easier by her parents, who have missed just a handful of her matches and have even traveled as far as Oregon, North Carolina and New Orleans to see her play.

Miller said Locke would occasionally call on her in the most critical of times her freshman season, specifically to serve for match point, to the shock of her parents.

"My parents would be like, 'what are you doing Sonya?'" Miller said. "They were just nervous for me."

Miller and the Salukis have gone 41-52 in her three years. In her sophomore year, the Salukis went 23-10 and made their deepest MVC tournament run ever, losing to perennial power Northern Iowa in the championship match.

SIU has won just four of 16 matches so far this season, but Miller said this year's team is the most talented squad she has been a part of.

"I think the difference between this year and my sophomore year is that team wanted to win so bad that we would do whatever was needed," Miller said. "This year I'll see it at times, but that deep desire hasn't completely surfaced yet with this team."

Miller said the Salukis' enormous wealth of talent and expectations for one of the six spots in the MVC tournament will not be realized unless they begin to exude the confidence and desire to win.

"You have to have the fight in you and you have to let it come out or you're not going to win games, I don't care how talented you are," Miller said.

Each season the Salukis adopt a credo, this year's being, "think big, believe big, perform big and the results will be big." Though SIU has yet to meet its expectations, Miller's play has been right where Locke anticipated it would be.

Two weeks ago SIU battled Pittsburgh, Dayton and Long Island at the Pittsburgh Classic. The Salukis lost all three matches, but Miller was named to the all-tournament team after collecting 59 digs in the three matches, including 21 against Pittsburgh.

After the final match of the weekend, Locke said numerous coaches and officials told her Miller was the best libero they had ever seen.

"They were telling us stuff that we already knew," Locke said. "And that night against Pittsburgh, if you were going to pick our libero versus their libero, ours won."

Locke doesn't know if Miller is the best at her position in the Valley, but said the qualities Miller brings to the team separate her from the pack.

"I think that's where she's probably more special than most in that she's a leader," Locke said. "She brings a whole lot more to the table, as far as leadership is concerned, than the ones that I've seen so far, there's no question."