In the past week, the women's volleyball team failed to play consistently as a unified team, falling to 5-3 in SUNYAC play and 12-21 overall.
On Saturday, the Knights continued SUNYAC West round robin pool play and split a pair of games. The team defeated SUNY Oswego but fell to Buffalo State, earning a second place spot in SUNYAC.
In the opener against Oswego, the team came out aggressively and easily took the first set 25-12. Throughout the second and third sets, the Knights stayed focused, winning 25-22 and 25-18.
Head coach Jen Salmon noted that senior Krista Frieling, junior Kat Strickland and sophomore Laura Galvin played consistently throughout Saturday. Frieling returned strong after being injured for about two weeks. "She's getting back into it. She's doing a great job," Salmon said.
Frieling and Strickland led the Knights with 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Sophomore Megan Reed, junior Jackie Inserillo and freshman Ronnie Guszcza also added kills to pace the offense. Freshman Noelle Morrison dished out 32 assists. It was truly a team effort that sealed the win for the Knights.
Although the team was able to sweep Oswego in three straight sets, the Knights were unable to carry that success into the next match against Buffalo State. In that game, the Knights returned to their old ways. They fell in three sets; 24-26, 18-25 and 19-25.
Frieling got the Knights on the board with 12 kills and 12 digs; Morrison added 29 assists and Galvin contributed nine digs.
"It just wasn't our best volleyball. We made a lot of errors … mental errors and we weren't focused," Salmon said. This mentality was reflected in the box score; the Knights had 20 attack errors, 5 serving errors, 4 blocking errors and 5 receiving errors.
On Tuesday the team traveled to Elmira College, but fell in four sets; 17-25, 23-25, 25-20 and 14-25. Frieling totaled 13 kills and Strickland added eight kills and five blocks to lead the Knights. Guszcza also added eight kills. Morrison dished out 33 assists and Galvin had 16 digs.
The Knights face St. John Fisher College and SUNY Potsdam Saturday to finish their regular season play. After winning only one of the three games this past week, the team is hoping to get back on track in preparation for the SUNYAC tournament. The team has already qualified for SUNYACs and now holds the second seed in the West division. Salmon said that she hopes that the team will "go into SUNYACs confident after playing two quality matches [against St. John Fisher College and Potsdam]."
SUNYAC play begins for the Knights on Nov. 4. They are scheduled to compete against SUNY Oneonta, which currently stands in third in the East division.