This season, the Oswego State women’s volleyball team is looking to accomplish something that it fell short of doing last season: making the SUNYAC tournament.

The team saw its first dose of action this past weekend during a tournament in Morrisville against teams such as SUNY Poly and Penn St Behrend.

Over the weekend, the team went 3-2 in five matches. head coach J.J O’Connell liked a lot from his team’s play. When asked about it, he provided insight on the team’s overall hustle, as well as its motivation toward improving on last year.

O’Connell also pointed out two of his best players returning from last season: junior Shauna O’Flaherty and senior Alison Sullivan.

Sullivan had 50 total points, including 39 kills, over the weekend. This is coming off an exceptional season in 2017, in which she led the team in points (312.5), kills (221), and blocks (131). However, Sullivan is still working to make her overall game the best it can possibly be.

“You’re always trying to improve your game, but I definitely want to hit more accurately. My hitting percentage wasn’t the best so I want that to be better,” Sullivan said.

When it came to acknowledging her exceptional performance in the tournament, she felt it was an all-around team effort.
“This is my favorite team that I’ve been on in the past couple years, we’re all best friends. We communicate really well on and off the court,” Sullivan said.

“J.J [O’Connell] is a great coach. We have really good assistant coaches and everyone’s really good at helping each other and telling us what we can do.”

O’Flaherty put together a solid performance in the tournament with a total of 29 points and 20 kills. Last season, O’Flaherty was right behind her teammate Sullivan as second on the team in points (244), kills (191), and digs (284.) In order to keep up her own high level of play, O’Flaherty is putting an emphasis on teamwork first.

“I’m trying a lot harder to communicate with my team to make it easier as a player and keep my standing on the team,” O’Flaherty said.

O’Connell also mentioned that everyone on the team seems to be on the same page as far as improving upon their 12-17 record in 2017. One of the main reasons for this is the fact that the team only lost two seniors from the previous season, so many players are returning. Even with so many familiar faces, Sullivan and O’Flaherty both agreed that something about this team just feels different.

‘We have so much more energy this year, and it’s not even about new players. They definitely bring a lot of energy, but I think even our returning players have stepped up their game as far as communicating and being more energetic,” O’Flaherty said.

“We were just static every play basically. So in the spring season, we really put a focus on having energy every single play, trying our hardest, and competing with each other in a friendly manner,” said Sullivan.  

This weekend, the team will travel to Poughkeepsie to play in the Vassar tournament to take on the host, the University of New England, and Scranton.

When it came to what they think will help the team achieve its goal moving forward, O’Flaherty thinks consistency and communication are the keys to success.

“We want to work on working together and communicating. We want to be an energetic team that throws the other team off, so we want to be really loud and just talk a lot,” O’Flaherty said.

Photo by Austin Dearborn | The Oswegonian