The Oswego State volleyball team enters its home SUNYAC pool play weekend on a three-match losing streak.
The first two loses came in quick succession during the squad’s first round of SUNYAC matches in Potsdam two weeks ago, after earning a five-set victory to open the weekend.
Head coach J.J. O’Connell said it is important for the Lakers to show resiliency following a loss if one comes this weekend because feeling of dejection cost them in the north country.
By the end of the weekend, two-thirds of the league calendar will be finished. Oswego State (1-2) sits in sixth entering the weekend tied with its Friday night opponent, SUNY Cortland, but only six of the SUNYAC’S ten teams qualify for the conference tournament.
“It puts Cortland and us in kind of a must-win mode going into the first match,” O’Connell said. “Technically, it doesn’t eliminate us if we don’t get that result, as long as we can take care of business outside of that. But, it puts us in a much better spot if we can get that Cortland win on Friday.”
The other two teams in the Lakers’ quad, Buffalo State and SUNY Oneonta, lie on opposite sides of the playoff picture. Oneonta (2-1) is just below the league leaders, while the Bengals (0-3) are on the cusp of being eliminated from contention.
No one is mathematically eliminated at this point in the season, so every team is looking to rack up victories in order to secure a postseason berth or remain in the race for one.
Here are four points for Oswego State to focus on headed into its upcoming contests:
1. Strong from the start
In the team’s two conference defeats on Sept. 24, it dropped the first two sets of the match and fell into a win-now scenario. While the third set went to the Lakers in both matches, they never fully recovered.
“We really need to come out strong from the very first point communicating and if we don’t that’s what’s been happening to us in the past couple games,” senior Lauren Edwards said. “Our communication just wasn’t there so we really need to work on that this weekend to be successful.”
2. Feed off the energy
Besides being a home league-play weekend, Oswego State will also honor its senior class on Saturday in the team’s third and final match of the weekend. Home matches already bring a more supportive crowd, but the addition of family and friends of the graduating players should boost the crowd noise from the stands.
According to senior outside hitter Emma Moriarty, Laker parents can get pretty rowdy and are always loud and proud.
“We were 3-0 at our home tournament [and] we had a great showing against Fisher, so I think we’re really comfortable playing at home which is good,” O’Connell said. “Cortland and Oneonta should be pretty even and [Buffalo] State will always play us tough. So, it’s kind of nice to be home for this round.”
3. Play clean
The Lakers roster features 10 players from last year’s SUNYAC-semifinalist team that set a program record for wins.
This year’s team believes it has potential to play at a higher level. O’Connell said his team falls behind when it starts playing sloppy.
“Nobody is really going to intimidate us but, same point, we really haven’t even hit our stride yet, in terms of playing as perfectly as we can,” O’Connell said.
4. Quick second contact
According to O’Connell, the first and last matches of the weekend will be grind-it-out competitions. But, the head coach feels the key to getting ahead of Cortland and Oneonta will be getting the second hit to the outside quicker so outside hitters can find holes in the opposing defense.
“For this weekend, we definitely need better transition passes and that’s my job as a passer, as a libero, and from our outsides and basically everyone,” libero Rina Qelaj said. “Everyone just needs to do their job on defense so we can get our setters stable and so we can run faster plays.”
