Sara Bachus and Amanda Lang play volleyball as though they're spinning on the same axis. The Xavier seniors shift in symmetry, even without watching, seemingly sensing each other's actions.

Bachus XU profile

Lang XU profile

        That's what eight years of playing together and going to class together can do. And now they even live together.

        “People ask us all the time if we're sisters, because we're together nonstop,” Bachus said. “We're inseparable, like best friends.”

        They've been teammates since their freshman year at Seton, and their teamwork is one reason XU (12-2, 5-2 Atlantic 10) is picked to win its conference and secure its first NCAA Tournament berth.

        “That (familiarity) helps a lot,” Lang said. “I'm so used to where she'll go at different spots, different times, and she knows how to play around my idiosyncrasies.”

        They have arrived at this shared success from disparate directions.

        Bachus is the superstar, the league's player of the year last season, but she wasn't even sure she wanted to play in college. She had planned to be a beautician, and coach Floyd Deaton has had to coax her in past seasons not to drop the sport.

        Lang is a walk-on who has ascended to starter status. She had planned on coming to Xavier regardless of volleyball; her mother, Mary, works in the school's president's office.

        Bachus and Lang say they have grown closer in college. They have picked many of the same classes, borrowed each other's clothes and now gotten an apartment with two other teammates.

        “It's so fun,” Lang said of the friendship.

        Deaton describes Lang, a powerful left-side hitter, as the muscle of the team, and Bachus, the right-side hitter who proficiently sets, defends and scores, as the backbone.

        Through the weekend, Bachus was leading the A-10 in hitting percentage (.420) and kills (221). Her .333 career hitting percentage was the only mark in school history above .300. Bachus ranked fifth in career kills with 1,323, and fellow senior outside hitter Jill Hampton (Notre Dame Academy) was ninth with 1,141. Freshman setter Molly Martin ranked sixth nationally in assists per game with a 13.91 average.

        XU's 5-2 A-10 mark trails only the 5-1 of co-leaders Dayton and Rhode Island. XU won a non-league match Tuesday at Wright State, 30-20, 30-21, 28-30, 30-19.

        “We thought we should have gotten in the NCAAs last year (at 23-8) but didn't, so that's why we think the only way we're going to get in is (with an automatic bid) by winning the conference tournament,” Deaton said.

        XU held two match points before losing to George Washington last year in the A-10 tourney final. It finished 43rd in the RPI, better than eight at-large teams selected for the NCAAs.

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