The Oswego State volleyball season has come to an end after a 3-0 loss to SUNY Cortland in the quarterfinals of the SUNYAC playoffs.

Last season, the Lakers were able to make it to the SUNYAC semi-finals, beating The College at Brockport by a score of 3-2 before falling to New Paltz 3-1. The Lakers looked to get further this year against SUNY Cortland, but they went down early and never came back. In the first set, the Red Dragons won by a wide margin of 25-13, with the Lakers having a kill percentage of zero. Oswego State fell in a close second set before SUNY Cortland wrapped it up in the third. And with that, the Lakers season ended. Senior Shauna O’Flaherty said the Lakers were never able to get settled in.

“I think Cortland has a really great serving team, and it was hard for us to get in a rhythm,” O’Flaherty said. “It was hard to pass the ball up and get a good set on a not so great pass, so it was definitely hard to get into a rhythm.”

SUNY Cortland was second in the conference this season in aces with 1,248.

Overall the Lakers finish the season with a record of 20-10 and finish sixth in the SUNYAC with a conference record of 5-4. The Lakers did improve by one game as far as the regular season goes. While the team expected more than a first round exit, a playoff berth is considered a success. The Lakers were led this season by great coaching and strong senior leadership with five out of their six starters being seniors. Volleyball is a very team-oriented sport, and the Lakers demonstrated their chemistry on the court. All six athletes have played with each other for three years, so that growth and development over time helped them this season. They were very good when they set the tone and controlled the pace of the game going 17-3 when they won the first set. Head coach J.J. O’Connell is very happy with how the season went.

“I thought it was a good season,” O’Connell said. “20 wins is a great season for us. I thought we were competitive for pretty much the entire conference schedule. We felt like we were right there with all the teams, so then to be a little flat against Cortland was pretty disappointing for us, I really felt like we had a shot to make a run at it.”

Looking ahead, Oswego State has five departing seniors who had the most playing time this year. The Lakers will bring back one starter in Melissa Lussier, who led the team in points and kills this past year. Emily Klock will also be returning after she received an increased role this season when Lauren Fie was out for a few games with a sprained ankle. Lussier could be a leader for a younger Lakers team, but she seems ready to take on that challenge.

“I feel really confident,” Lussier said. “We had a really great recruiting year this year, so we have really great freshmen, we have a lot of great positive energy, we still have our libero and [Mira Legon-Bozman] is coming off her ACL injury from last season. She is going to be good to go next season, so I think we are going to have a really good season.”

The libero Lussier referred to is Junior Emily Costa, who played in 30 matches this season and logged 41 points.

For O’Flaherty, she really enjoyed not only this season but her time here at Oswego State. She plans on returning next year for her masters degree and hopes to be involved in the program in some way. As a transfer, O’Flaherty says coming to Oswego State was an amazing experience and is happy she decided to transfer.

“Regardless of the outcome of the season … that was by far the best decision I’ve ever made,” O’Flaherty said. “I have met so many great people and just had the opportunity to do a lot of great things here.”

Photo by William Rogers | The Oswegonian