The Plattsburgh State volleyball team lost all four games at the Union Tournament in Schenectady, New York last weekend, marking the second straight week the Cardinals have failed to win a match in a tournament.
The Union Tournament kicked off Friday with PSUC playing Union College (8-4). The Cards dropped all three sets to Union (25-12, 25-19, 25-15). They couldn’t seem to figure out Union’s serves, giving up 13 aces the whole match. PSUC tallied only one ace.
Later that afternoon, the Cards took on the Wentworth Institute of Technology (9-2). While their defensive stats improved from the first match, PSUC dropped three more sets against Wentworth (25-15, 25-17, 25-22).
The Cards looked to bounce back on Saturday, leading things off against Skidmore College (8-4). Once again, PSUC gave up too many aces, allowing Skidmore to collect 14 the whole match, while the Cards struck twice off the serve. Brianna Coon tied her career high with 11 kills in the contest. They would drop all three sets (25-14, 25-22, 25-17), bringing their losing streak to 21 sets.
The weekend ended on a positive note for PSUC in a loss to Wells College (5-8). The Cards came out strong, winning a set for the first time since a 3-1 win over the Sage Colleges Sept.1. PSUC would continue to battle, but eventually lose in five sets (18-25, 25-21, 25-21, 23-25, 15-11).
“I think we started finally playing well this past Saturday,” head coach Matt Lein said. “We’re really starting to click as a team, and we want to build off of that in practice this week and prepare for next weekend.”
Today, the Cards head down to Cortland, New York for the first SUNYAC play of the year. Coach Lein said the team needs to get fired up for this tournament.
“I think SUNYAC will do that in itself,” Lein said. ”We were on the bus back from Union, and they were already ready to go. When we were playing well on Saturday, the energy was up. There’s no need to pump them up, they know how much this means.”
Lein is still confident on making the SUNYAC playoffs.
“Our season restarts now,” Lein said. ”Everyone is 0-0. Every team is going to be ready to bring it. We need to work hard and bring our game and not worry about anything else. We need to control our side of the court first.”
PSUC kicks off SUNYAC pool play today at 5 p.m. against The College at Brockport (6-6). Tomorrow, they take on the Red Dragons of SUNY Cortland (4-7), and later in the afternoon the Cards will face Buffalo State (3-10).
Last year, PSUC had the same exact schedule lined up in Geneseo in early October. Plattsburgh lost all three matches in nine sets.
Email Jacob Elsbree at cp@cardinalpointsonline.com
