The Geneseo volleyball team suffered quite the letdown on Saturday Oct. 25, coming up short against some of the best teams in SUNYAC. “[We’re] disappointed. Very disappointed,” head coach Jennifer Salmon said. “We had a couple of losses going into Saturday Oct. 25 that were crucial because we relied heavily on that day with the top two teams in the conference we were playing against.”
Starting on Oct. 24, the Knights played against three different schools and although they lost the matches, they showed vast improvements. The inconsistency of the team, however, is something that the players are continuing to work on. That proved to be a major vulnerability throughout the three games.
“I saw some really great volleyball from the girls—it just wasn’t consistent enough,” Salmon said. “There were some key errors … key moments that lost us a set, then a match, but I saw some great things as well.”
Although the team performed impressively, the losses ended their chances of going to the playoffs.
The team is positive nonetheless. Even though the squad won’t be playing in the SUNYAC tournament, there are still a few big matches coming up that will ultimately aid the team in its fine-tuning efforts.
“We’re looking forward to it,” Salmon said. “We’re turning a negative to a positive as we approach these last few matches with the aggressive mindset of wanting to end on a high note with a few wins.”
A bad weekend does not make a bad team. The Knights went from 13 wins in the 2013 season to 17 wins three-quarters of the way through this season.
“In the grand scheme of things, it’s not bad,” Salmon said.
The metamorphosis of the team has been quite extraordinary, and it only brings wonder as to what the Knights will bring to the table next season.
“We’re a very young team, I keep reminding myself of that,” Salmon said. “Even though we have a few juniors on the roster, they’re technically sophomores [by eligibility]… this team only has a year and a half of college experience under their belt. That’s so exciting for the future.”
The volleyball team is continuing to make improvements to better themselves in their positions, on and off the court.
“We have to be able to move on and take that disappointment into a productive mentality moving forward for the last three matches of the season, which I know the girls can do,” Salmon said.