The Oswego State volleyball team is headed to its second SUNYAC pool play of the season on Oct. 5 and 6 for three more conference matchups hosted by SUNY New Paltz.
Early on, this season has been a lot stronger for the Lakers compared to their 2017 season. Boasting a 12-6 record heading into the weekend, players remember the heartbreak of a season that ended their chances of postseason play.
Last season, Oswego State was in a three-way tie for a spot in the playoffs. The Lakers lost the tie-breaker game in four sets, despite beating that same team in the regular season. The team ended at 12-17 overall with a 4-5 conference record. The SUNYACs were all but a fantasy for players like Melissa Lussier, who was in her first year during the abrupt ending.
“We were all kind of heated about how we got the bad seed,” Lussier said.
The morale is higher for the team this season, senior Alison Sullivan said. The mindset of winning games and just having fun has been a key focus for all the players on the roster.
“We dance a lot. We have fun,” Sullivan said. “You have to have fun. If you’re not having fun, you can’t play the sport. Everyone tries really hard, and people communicate openly, so that’s good.”
With that in mind, the team said it is positive about the rest of the season as it heads into the month of October. There are two SUNYAC pools left in the season, including the one this weekend.
“We all had higher standards for ourselves this year, especially with how our season ended last year,” Lussier said. “Even though we did have an upset [against SUNY Potsdam], I think it just pushes us to work harder for the next couple of weekends.”
The first SUNYAC pool this season resulted in a 1-2 conference record for Oswego State. The team was able to sweep SUNY Oneonta 3-0 during the first matchup, but lost to SUNY Geneseo on Sept. 22 followed by the loss to SUNY Potsdam. The Lakers did not win a single set against the Knights or the Bears.
“We were pretty disappointed not to get the Geneseo win because we invested a lot into it,” head coach J.J. O’Connell said. “Kudos to Potsdam. They played well, but certainly a disappointment because it’s a match we wanted.”
This weekend will be similar for the Lakers from an opponent standpoint. SUNY New Paltz is 15-3, comparable to the strength of SUNY Geneseo. SUNY Fredonia is close to the Lakers record-wise, similar to the Red Dragons from Sept. 21. Plattsburgh State, who is 6-12 overall, reminds O’Connell of the matchup against SUNY Potsdam.
“The strongest team [out of the three], we played second,” O’Connell said. “I think New Paltz, of this group, is the strongest team, and the next best team is first. It’s the same thing we ran into the first weekend.”
All three matches are important since they are all conference games, Sullivan said. The mindset is to take all of the games in the upcoming pool play.
“We want to get back into tournament play and be able to host a tournament game as a top seed,” Sullivan said. “We really need to take down Fredonia and New Paltz, and Plattsburgh, of course.”
But for players like Lussier, the idea of facing the Hawks brings a strong challenge for Oswego State.
“I’m excited to play New Paltz because they seem to be doing well,” Lussier said. “It’d be fun to get an upset.”
The Lakers have been able to maintain success outside of the SUNYAC. In the team’s most recent game on Sept. 26 against Clarkson University, the Lakers came away with a 3-1 win. O’Connell emphasized the lack of attacking errors that contributed to the team’s success.
“All the sets we won against Clarkson, the ones we won handily, we only had a couple of attacking errors,” O’Connell said. “The ones that were closer and the one we lost, we had seven to nine attacking errors.”
However, translating the success to conference games is key for the team. Eleven of the team’s wins are out of the SUNYAC conference. O’Connell said that the team needs to focus on the defense and blocking, two aspects which were strong in the game against Clarkson University.
“We brought in Skylar Bechard for a little more energy. She helped us a little bit there, to stay positive,” O’Connell said. “We just focused on our blocking a lot. We out-blocked Clarkson, which is a big stat for us because if we can smother other team’s offenses, it puts a lot of pressure on them.”
As Oswego State heads into October, the same mentality from a coaching perspective runs through O’Connell’s head: getting the late wins and avoiding the injury plague. More importantly, for O’Connell’s sixth season, it is about continuing the success the team has had early on.
“We just got to keep getting better. We try and teach them new skills…” O’Connell said. “…other players are going to have to step up. We’ll see who those players are, and it’ll be entertaining for sure.”
Graphic by Shea McCarthy | The Oswegonian
