The Oswego State women’s volleyball team traveled to play back-to-back matches against Clarkson University and Hartwick College on Sept. 7.

The Lakers went into the arena with the mindset of turning their winning streak from four games into six.

The first set against the Hartwick Hawks started off quickly with the Hawks having a lead of  7-0. The Lakers attempted to catch up with kills from Priscilla McReynolds and Kalley Vugteveen. Halfway through the set it was not looking good for the Lakers with the Hawks  leading 17-8. The Lakers did not give up and continued to fight hard to win the set, but were only able to gain three more points and lost the set 25-11.

The second set hardly varied from the first, with the Hawks leading 7-0 again. With errors made from the Hawks, multiple opportunities opened for Harper Phinney to deliver a service ace to make the score 9-5 with the Hawks still in the lead. Throughout the rest of the set Emily Zeisley was able to make a few kills with assists from CJ Eidem. 

After hard work from the Lakers they were unable to beat the Hawks in the second set and lost 25-11 once again.

Set three started to look like a comeback for the Lakers with an early lead of 5-3 caused by a kill from Gigi Basile with an assist from Phinney. As the set continued the Hawks began to fight back and build a lead, getting six points ahead of the Lakers. After kills from McReynolds and Basile the Lakers were tied with the Hawks, 16-16. 

The Lakers continued to push hard to be in the lead, but they were unsuccessful and they closed out the third set 22-25. 

After losing to Hartwick, the Lakers were motivated to win their second match against the Clarkson Knights. 

The Lakers started off the first set with a lead of 3-0 and continued to fight to stay in the lead until the Knights were able to fight back and tie 8-8. The Knights fought hard and scored three points in a row. The Lakers struggled to make a comeback and at the end of the set they gained thirteen more points, closing the set with a 25-21 loss.

The Lakers started off the second match with an unfortunate loss, but they were determined to turn it around and win the next set.

After a total of four sets the Lakers were starting to gain a large enough lead to stay in front. McReynolds and Zeisler were a strong force that was able to keep the Knights from surpassing them. Serves from Mya Bush and Cara Simplicio helped complete the set and push them closer to victory. The Lakers accomplished their goal and ended the second set with a winning score of 25-22. 

It was the Lakers first win of the night, so when it came to the third set they were set on gaining another win.

When the third set started, they were far from close to winning. The Knights were aggressive and caused the Lakers to be down, 24-17. Grace Gdovin and Lillian Byrne were able to slam kills with assists from Phinney that drew the Lakers closer to the Knights. The Lakers were unable to gain enough points and lost the third set 25-22.

It was the fourth set of the match and the Lakers seventh of the night and the exhaustion started to kick in. They fought the fatigue and worked as hard as possible to gain another win.

The Lakers started to lag and the Knights were in the lead 6-0. The Lakers gave it their best and managed to put two points on the scoreboard making it, 14-2. Kills from Simplicio, Basile, McReynold, and Gdovin helped the Lakers gain ten more points, ending the game 25-12.

The Lakers struggled, but worked hard enough during their back-to-back matches, and accomplished one win against Clarkson

The Oswego volleyball team will be traveling next Friday,  Sep. 13, to Union College. The game will start at 8:00 p.m. and hopefully their game against the Chargers will start a new winning streak for the Lakers.

Photo by: Oswego Athletics