The Oswego State women’s volleyball team began their season in early September and so far, they are having a decent start. They hope to rebound and win on Sept. 24. 

Coach Jefferson O’Connell has been Oswego State’s women’s volleyball coach since 2012.  He has been impressed with how his team and players are performing this season.  One player he was surprised by was sophomore Grace Taylor.  

“She has done a nice job of building our offense,“ O’Connell said. 

 O’Connell had also noted improvement with sophomore Nyah Davis, who he said has learned a lot.  He has also seen growth from freshman Nicole Barden.

“She has come a long way already,” O’Connell said.

One of the team’s best athletes, junior Sydney Chiffriller, is out due to injury. She has had a solid start for the Lakers recording 43 kills and 59 digs in just 23 sets played.

O’Connell noted that his previous teams made defense a staple of their game plan and still stresses it to this day.

“Defense comes first even when we want to be an offensive team,” O’Connell said. “Giving the girls as much one-on-one time is paramount to our success.”

Another vital defender for this Laker team is senior Dana Carey. She has been on the team for four years and already has had a lot of experiences playing and traveling with her teammates. Carey has even been able to venture far from Oswego in the past.

“Going to Wisconsin with our team, we went to a Baseball game there.  It was very cool to fly to a different state and just experience that and the volleyball there,” Carey said.  

Carey envisions some promising team goals for the Lakers this year.  These goals include winning some conference games down the stretch and making it to a championship. 

“I want to make it to the SUNYACS,” Carey said. “I want to be a critical part of the team.” 

Newcomer Madison Gordon has been on the team for a month and has already proven herself a good offensive and defensive asset. Through 28 games pre-injury, she had 21 kills and 53 digs.  Gordon hopes to improve her skills throughout the semester.

“I want to become more confident in myself in all areas like passing and hitting,” Gordon said.  

Gordon has already experienced many exciting things during her first year on the team specifically, hanging out with her teammates. 

“Traveling and going to a lot of different schools and playing in different areas was fun,” Gordan said. “It has been a really awesome experience, as a freshman when I came here everyone was super friendly and very welcoming.” 

Gordon added a team goal for her and her teammates including making it to the SUNYAC championship and beyond by making it to the playoffs.   

The freshman from Ardsley, New York, has already gotten a feeling of what the team chemistry is looking like between her and her teammates. 

In light of his promising freshman players, O’Connell could not be more excited for this season partly because they basically had no games last year.  

“It feels good to feel a sense of normalcy,” O’Connell said. “Not being able to practice at all last season was unpleasant.” 

O’Connell saw improvement over when they played SUNY Canton and Elmira College earlier this season. Before the tournament in their last defeat, O’Connell saw a couple issues in their defensive scheme. 

“Cortland did a good job at exposing our court tip defense,” O’Connell said. “They were all over our defensive blocks, our communication was suspect at best.”  

O’Connell is looking forward to the rest of this season to get going and has a lot of expectations for the offseason as well.  

“Once we end our season it is all about recovery,” O’Connell said.  “A lot of our new players when they get to us, have not seen our off-speed shots yet.”

The Oswego State women’s volleyball team’s next game is against SUNY Fredonia on Sept. 24 at 6:00 p.m. located at the Max Ziel Gymnasium. 

William Rogers | The Oswegonian