It would seem that Plattsburgh State is finally starting to mesh, just in time for the approaching conference schedule.
The Cardinals placed second in the Best Western-Ground Round Cardinal Classic last weekend, after wins against Elms College and Bridgewater State, and a loss to The Sage Colleges.
PSUC easily handled Elms 3-0 and defeated Bridgewater convincingly 3-1.
PSUC head coach Jake Bluhm said that even the loss to Sage didn’t come without its advantages.
“On Friday night when we were down, Sage did not let up the pressure and continued pushing really hard,” Bluhm said. “Seeing how they did that, and then in turn doing it ourselves in our two matches on Saturday definitely allowed us to win those two games.”
If anything was to be taken from the tournament as a whole, it was that the freshmen, as well as the rest of the team, are starting to work together and understand one another.
Freshman striker Miranda Sheffer, who had 23 kills during the tournament, feels that she is finally getting into the groove of college volleyball.
“It definitely took me a little while to get used to the college defenses,” Sheffer said. “I think I am catching on very fast.”
Bluhm expressed that he feels relationships between the players both on and off the court, are beginning to get more, leading to more positive things happening on the court.
“I think our defense and our ball control are starting to thrive,” Bluhm said. “The cohesiveness of the players understanding where they and their teammates are on the court is allowing us to score more points.”
Senior captain Meghan Clifford feels a similar confidence, based on the Cards being able to succeed where they previously had not.
PSUC had previously struggled with winning longer matches, something they did against Bridgewater State on Saturday.
“I think we’re pretty confident, especially because of how we played against Bridgewater,” Clifford said. “We haven’t won a match that went to four or five sets, so it was nice to finally come out and win a game like that.”
The Cards most important part of the season, is just around the corner, so it is important that the team keep this winning mentality going into that tournament Bluhm said.
“We want to make sure we are doing the things that we know we can do so when we do go into SUNYACS we can give it all we have.” Bluhm said. “Those are going to be our most important matches of the season.”
Email Bailey Carlin at bailey.carlin@cardinalpointsonline.com.
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