After coming away with two victories in their tournament at Morrisville State over the Labor Day weekend, the Oswego State Lakers volleyball team looks to continue improving their play as a team moving forward. Oswego State followed up the holiday tournament with a loss to St. Lawrence University in four sets on Wednesday.

This was the Lakers first go around on the court of the 2017 season after experiencing a bit of an off year in 2016, which saw them finish with just a 14-16 record. Making improvements this time around is more than just a quick fix, explains head coach J.J. O’Connell.

“We changed our offense around, in the past we had used two setters, so whoever was in the back row was setting,” O’Connell said. “This year we’re only using one setter, so she plays front row or back row.”

O’Connell also mentioned some specific strategies that will emphasize the stronger points of the team’s offense.

“We also really focused on adding some motion into our offense,” O’Connell said. “One of our middles, Alison Sullivan, who was All-Conference last year, we gave her more freedom to run along the net as opposed to just staying in the middle the whole time, so she can run behind the setter a little bit more where she’s really-really good.”

When discussing players on the team who could have a positive impact with both their play on the court, as well as influence in the locker room, the first name that jumped out to O’Connell was that of senior, Rina Qelaj.

“Rina’s doing a really nice job for us, she’s stabilized herself in the libero position where she got some good experience last year, and it’s really carried over,” O’Connell said. “Of all the players on the team I’ve had to coach her the least this year because she’s already so well trained. Everyone looks to her as the main leader.”

O’Connell also made sure to mention that he is also impressed with leadership of senior Isabella Winklestine and junior Alison Sullivan.

As for Qelaj, last season was a career year for the Laker libero, which included a personal best 34 aces and 248 digs.

“I’ll definitely be able to use that momentum going into this season. I mean just from preseason all of us have fought so hard for our spots, which was different from last year,” Qelaj said. “Just coming into practice every day gives me momentum to play hard during games and [the] team we all push each other and give each other energy. Based off last year, I’m just looking to do better so that also gives me a boost of momentum coming into this season.”

The Lakers’ leader is also optimistic of the team improvement so far from last season.

“I think the team has definitely improved since last season,” Qelaj said. “I think we’re closer this year, everybody is really scrambling to get the ball, everybody’s fighting for a position, and I think everybody wants to win this year and you can see it when we play.”

On top of the experience and stellar play from Qelaj and others, the Lakers also saw the emergence of first-year Laker Shauna O’Flaherty.

In her first outing as a Laker this past weekend, O’Flaherty was named to the all-tournament team.

“It was definitely very exciting,” O’Flaherty said. “It was really good to start off that way, it kind of gives you a boost of confidence, plus our two wins that we had just really shows how we’re gonna improve as a team starting off the season with a good start.”

Along with O’Connell and Qelaj, O’Flaherty also took notice of the teams overall hustle and up-tempo play.

“I think we’re a really scrappy team, were able to get balls up and we worked really hard,” O’Flaherty said. “We started off with MIT really slow and then we were able to progress get better. The scores were better toward the end of the games which shows that we are able to come back and still work hard.”

The Oswego State women’s volleyball team continues their season this weekend in the Northwest Pennsylvania Challenge where they will take on The College ofWooster, Penn St-Behrend, Thiel College, and Allegheny College.

Photo: Taylor Woods | The Oswegonian