Oswego State volleyball suffered its second consecutive tough week as they traveled to Potsdam for the first round of SUNYAC pool play.
This time, however, it meant something. The matches count now and in their first showing of the year, the Lakers struggled against conference rivals.
Oswego State’s Friday matchup was its only win of the weekend. The Lakers defeated SUNY Plattsburgh in five sets and had to feel good after moving to 1-0 in SUNYAC play for the 2016 season.
That feeling did not last too long.
The Lakers have not lost to SUNY Plattsburgh since the 2013 season and saw a revamped Cardinals team fall just shy of knocking them off in the first meeting between the two teams this season.
SUNY Plattsburgh is flooded with underclassmen leading the way. This inexperience was evident as Oswego State committed just 19 attack errors to the Cardinals’ 33. The Lakers pride themselves on their upperclassmen and it was exactly what they needed to get the job done.
Saturday was not so kind to coach J.J. O’Connell’s club.
They dropped both matches, one to SUNY New Paltz and one to SUNY Geneseo. Unable to bounce back after dropping the first two first sets in each, the Lakers fell to 1-6 on the year when dropping the first frame. The only win of this nature came in the first match of year on Sept. 2 against the New Rochelle College Blue Angels.
This inability to climb out of holes early in matches is pretty unexplainable, especially considering how confident the entire Laker team is in its leaders and captains to motivate them on the court.
The SUNY New Paltz Hawks continued their recent dominance of the Lakers in the day’s morning match. Oswego State came out slow and dropped the first set, 25-17. The Hawks dominated every statistical category, beating the Lakers in points, kills, aces, blocks, assists and digs. The Lakers were unable to get revenge against the very same team that knocked them out of the SUNYAC playoffs last season in straight sets.
The Lakers took on the SUNY Geneseo Knights in the afternoon cap and lost yet again.
The match against the Knights, who sit just one game behind the 3-0 Hawks in the SUNYAC standings at 2-1 after the opening weekend of conference play, was more evenly balanced as far as team stats go. However, the way the Lakers ended the weekend is what is most troubling.
O’Connell can’t be too happy with his team dropping the final set of the day 25-12 to a conference opponent. That may be due to stamina or the Lakers being unable to get out of their own way, but a better showing was needed to even take some momentum into their eight days off before they meet Clarkson University on Oct. 4.
Whatever the case is, the Oswego State volleyball team needs to get back to their early season ways. The team has dropped five of their last eight matches after starting the 2016 season with a 5-1 record, falling to 9-7 overall.
There is still plenty of time to turn this around and the Lakers are not in a bad spot in the SUNYAC. This is where the senior leaders need to step in to make sure that this freefall does not continue.
The Lakers will have an exteded period of time to fix these issues. After their fantastic season a year ago, it is not time to panic yet, but definitely raises questions moving forward.
