Oswego Volleyball

Lakers volleyball loses in SUNYAC championships

GENESEO, N.Y.  –  Oswego state volleyball team faced off against the Geneseo Knights on Tuesday afternoon for the first round of the SUNYAC Championships. The Lakers started off strong building a 3-1 lead over the knights. Both teams would go back and throughout the first half of the set. Geneseo would then take control later in the first set, increasing their lead to 7 over the Lakers.Oswego had many mistakes in the first half with 12 errors in the first set, 4 of which came from service errors. The Lakers had no answer and couldn’t get the lead back from the Knights as they took set 1 by a score of 25-17.

Geneseo continued to control the second set, establishing a 10-3 lead on the Lakers before a timeout by Oswego. The Lakers rallied back and cut the deficit to just 3 to the score 18-15. Oswego had no answers again falling in the second set by a score of 18-25. Emma Fiorentine led the Lakers with 4 kills in the second set and Mckenna Corbin added 7 more assists in set 2.

Oswego started off the third set stronger building a 5-0 lead on the Knights. The Knights would find their groove eventually and would come back and take the third set by a score of 25-20. In the set Fiorentine led the Lakers with 11 kills on the evening and Mckennaled with 29 assists and 14 digs. The Lakers were ultimately swept 3-0, ending their run for a SUNYAC Championship and their season.

Oswego State ends their season (17-11, 5-5 SUNYAC) and  Geneseo will move on to the second round of the SUNYAC championships(12-11, 7-3 SUNYAC).

PHOTO COURTESY OF MICHELLE QUIACHON, WTOP10 PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT

Oswego State Volleyball falls in first conference matchup

OSWEGO, N.Y — Oswego State Volleyball kicked off conference play this past Tuesday in the Max Ziel Gymnasium. The Lakers were swept by the Red Dragons of SUNY Cortland. The opening set was close until a 7-2 Cortland run which extended their lead to 18-12. Oswego kept the second set interesting as the Lakers trailed the Red Dragons 22-21 after serves from freshman Cara Simpicio. The outside hitter led Oswego with eight kills and 11 eleven digs over the course of the match. After a pair of errors from the home squad, Cortland would take set two. In the third set, the two teams were tied at 13-13 prior to a 6-0 service run from Cortland that led the Red Dragons to their first conference victory of the 2021 season. Oswego State falls to 0-1 in the State University of New York Athletic Conference. The Lakers will travel to Fredonia Friday, September 24th, for their second conference matchup of the season.

However, the Lakers will host a tournament this coming weekend in the Max Ziel Gymnasium. Oswego kicks off action against Elmira Friday night at 8:00 p.m. before hosting SUNY Canton and St. John Fisher on Saturday. Oswego State Volleyball fans can check out all the action on WTOP 10!

Image Provided by Alexis Fragapane, Oswego State Athletics

Oswego Volleyball: SUNYAC Preview

OSWEGO, N.Y — The Oswego State Lakers head into their third week of the season prepared for the start of conference play. The Lakers host SUNY Cortland in the Max Ziel Gymnasium Tuesday evening for the first time in 729 days. Oswego State kicked off the season with a 4-4 record which consisted of a successful season opener against the Keuka College Wolves. The 3-2 set win started Oswego on the right foot ahead of a weekend tournament in Morrisville. Seven contests later, Oswego will get set for a rematch against the Red Dragons after getting bounced from the post season in the opening round back in 2019.

The Red Dragons of Cortland head into the contest with an overall record of 5-2. SUNY Cortland swept the Cortland Red Dragon Classic back on Labor Day Weekend before heading on an away trip to New Jersey for a set of three games. The Red Dragons were ranked third overall in the 2021 SUNYAC Women’s Volleyball Preseason Poll back on August 25th. Oswego was ranked seventh by the head coaches in the conference.

The Lakers will look to get their first win against the Red Dragons since the 2018 season. Game one is set to begin at 6:00 p.m. in the Max Ziel Gymnasium. Oswego State fans can check out all the action on WTOP 10 via the YouTube page.

Image Provided by Alexis Fragapane, Oswego State Athletics

SUNY Oswego suspends Athletic activities for remainder of Fall 2020 semester

OSWEGO, NY — On Sunday, September 13th, SUNY Oswego President Deborah Stanley released new guidelines and restrictions regarding on campus activity for the Fall 2020 semester. One of these restrictions regards Oswego State Athletics as the college announced in a campus wide email that all practices, meetings, workouts, and gatherings will be suspended for the remainder of the semester. Since August 31st, the fall sports of Men’s and Women’s Soccer, Field Hockey, and Men’s and Women’s Cross-Country teams have been conducting practices and team meetings. This past week, Men’s and Women’s Tennis started their “non-traditional” practice season. This coming week, Volleyball would have joined the spring sports teams of Softball, Baseball, and the Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse would have started their four-week practice period.

With this change in policy, winter sports teams will not be able to prepare for their season until January 1st, the date set by the SUNYAC conference back on July 20th. This developing situation will continued to be monitored by WTOP 10 as the 2020 calendar year wraps up.

Oswego State athletes earn academic honors

OSWEGO, NY ━ Over the past couple of weeks, Oswego State teams and student athletes have been rewarded with academic honors from organizations in their given sport. These awards were given out by national associations that are highlighting the work of collegiate athletes inside the classroom instead of on the field, track, ice, or court during the 2019-2020 seasons. Most of these groups are made up of college coaches across the United States that make these requirements for the honors. 

On July 29th, the women’s volleyball team received the Team Academic Award from the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA). This honor is given to volleyball teams that hold a grade point average of 3.30 on a 4.0 scale over the course of a whole academic year. The Lakers, who finished with a 3.43 team grade point average, were one of eight SUNYAC teams out of the ten institutions to receive the honor from this past year. This is their second time receiving the honor in the past three seasons under head coach JJ O’Connell

The Oswego State indoor women’s track and field team was honored with the All-Academic Award for their achievements in the classroom during the 2019-2020 academic year. The Lakers received the award from the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association for having a team grade point average of 3.21 which is above the 3.1 benchmark set by the organization. The team was one of four SUNYAC institutions to receive the honor, and one of 209 colleges nationally. Senior Catarina Burke received the All-Academic Award individually as the athlete qualified for the 2020 NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships in high jump along with having a grade point average above a 3.30 during the semester.

On July 23rd, the National Association of Basketball Coaches released the student athletes that would be getting named to the 2019-20 Honors Court. This award is given out to men’s basketball players who exceed a grade point average of 3.2 at the end of their 2018-19 academic year. Seniors Tim Marshall and Brandan Gartland, along with junior Liam Sanborn were all named to the Honors Court. This is the second time for both seniors as the pair were awarded the honor in 2018-19. This is the team’s second time in two years with three players being named to the prestigious group.

The men’s golf team also received academic honors from last season as two players were named All-America Scholars by the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA). Senior Eric Schliecher and sophomore Ryan Fecco both received the awards after meeting the criteria of having a career grade point average above 3.2 and having a stroke average under 79.0. These two individuals helped the team to three tournament wins and a third place finish in the Fall Empire 8 Championship.

Two players from the Oswego State women’s ice hockey team were recently selected by the American Hockey Coaches Association for the All-American Scholar award. On August 17th, the AHCA announced that seniors Kate Randazzo and Eryn Stewart received the honors after exceeding a 3.75 GPA the fall semester. These accolades put the finishing touches on two historic careers for the two graduates. Randazoo finished second on the Oswego career assists list and in the top-10 in total points, along with being a two year captain for the Lakers. Stewart would conclude her collegiate career inside the top-10 in points, goals, and assists. The women’s hockey team finished 16-7-4 this past season and lost to Plattsburgh in the Northeast Women’s Hockey League Championship. 

Congratulations to all the student athletes who received these academic honors along with the Oswego State teams that received overall academic awards. WTOP 10 will continue to update Oswego fans on the continuing development of COVID-19 and how it affects the Oswego State Lakers.

SUNYAC Conference Announces New Format for Fall 2020

OSWEGO, NY — On Wednesday, June 17th, the State University of New York Athletic Conference announced changes to the Fall 2020 Season regarding four sports. This change affects women’s tennis, women’s volleyball, and both men’s and women’s soccer, all sports offered by the conference. This decision was made Monday, June 15th, by the SUNYAC Board of Directors during its weekly conference meeting. The Board is made up of one representative from each member school, making up 10 individuals. This announcement has two separate changes that comes a few months before the fall season that will allow division three athletics to continue.

The first switch pertains to women’s tennis moving to the Spring 2021 season, which would align the conference with the current NCAA Division III tournament that already takes place in the spring season. The conference has eight of their ten members in the women’s tennis conference as Buffalo State and Potsdam do not offer the sport. The SUNYAC has been looking to make this change for several years, so the current situation allows the conference to evaluate the potential move. Some conferences have their season in the fall due to weather in the region, making their conference champion play for a NCAA title in the spring season.

For the other three sports, the SUNYAC has decided to split the conference into two different divisions that will compete against each other during the regular season. The divisions are split using Interstate 81 in Central New York, that goes from Oswego to Cortland. The West Division will contain Brockport, Buffalo State, Fredonia, Geneseo, and Oswego while the East Division will consist of Cortland, New Paltz, Oneonta, Plattsburgh, and Potsdam. The change will affect volleyball along with men’s and women’s soccer. Each team would play every opponent in their given division twice with a home and home series. At the end of the season, the top two teams of each division will secure a playoff berth to the SUNYAC playoffs. The same playoff format will be used from years past with all semi final games being played on November 4th, and all finals games being played on November 7th across all three sports. The main reason for this switch was of course to decrease travel time and costs as teams would not need to stay overnight for long road trips. The other benefit is over course the fact that players and team staff will be in contact with less individuals. This move can also be found around many other division III conferences like the NEAC, the conference Morrisville is a part of.

The conference has also stated that the institutions still have the authority to schedule non-conference match ups outside of division play. SUNYAC continued to say that colleges could schedule games against opponents from the other division, with these games not having any affect on the conference standings.

Moving forward, Oswego State Laker fans can expect fall sport’s schedules to be released by the end of July. The Lakers kicked off their season last year around the end of August. Till then, WTOP 10 will continue to update readers on all off season news to keep you up to date on your favorite Oswego State team.

Oswego Volleyball loses both games but has strong showing

OSWEGO — Lakers Volleyball finished SUNYAC play this weekend at the Max Ziel Gymnasium that started with a match up against the Brockport Golden Eagles on Friday night. The team would battle back to eventually lose by 2 points in the fifth set. Lakers were led by Melissa Lussier (15 kills and 2 aces) and Shauna O’Flaherty (13 kills and 3 blocks) who allowed the Lakers to win set number four and force the match into set five. The following day, the Lakers battled the conference leader SUNY Geneseo in a tight four set match up. The group would lose the first two sets by only three points each to the Knights. Senior Julia Flohr (18 digs) led the Laker defense in the third set to send the match into the fourth before the Knights became victorious. This lose ends SUNYAC regulation play for Oswego, who was granted the six-seed for the SUNYAC Championship. The team will travel to Cortland on November 5th for the opening round.

Volleyball drops heartbreak set to lose in five to Wells

OSWEGO — Volleyball hosted non-conference opponent Wells College Wednesday night in a five-set loss after a comeback from the Wells Express. After the team took a 2-1 set led over the Express, the Lakers would drop the next two sets only by a margin of four points or less. Recent SUNYAC Offensive Player of the Week Shauna O’Flaherty once again led the Lakers with 15 kills and 4 blocks. Other notables included Melissa Lussier (14 kills and 11 digs) and Sarah Massie (12 kills) along with Emily Costa playing stellular defense with 24 digs. Oswego State looks to round out conference play this weekend as they play host to the Brockport Golden Eagles. The contest will be played at the Mark Ziel Gymnasium at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Laker Volleyball sweeps Golden Flyers

OSWEGO — The Lakers defeated the Nazareth Golden Flyers in a quick three sets on Wednesday at the Max Ziel Gymnasium. The Golden Flyers came into the match 9-8 with a steady 3-1 away record. Lauren Fie and Julia Flohr led Oswego with two long serving runs that secured the first set. They would need to battle back in the other two sets to sweep Nazareth and improve to 14-6 overall. Shauna O’Flaherty, Senior, stood out with 13 kills and 2 blocks along with Lauren Fie’s 3 aces throughout the match. The team looks to take the recent success on the road for a 4-game road trip that starts with Plattsburgh this Friday. Oswego still has six matches SUNYAC games left before starting SUNYACS in early November.

Comeback Victory for Volleyball vs. Oneonta

OSWEGO — Volleyball had their 2nd SUNYAC match of the weekend yesterday. SUNY Oneonta visited Mark Ziel Gymnasium were the Lakers and Red Dragons used all five sets in this rivalry match up. Oswego would go down 2-1 going into the 3rd set until Junior Melissa Lussier helped lead the ladies to a comeback. This win is the first in conference play this season for the team which adds to their overall record of 13-6. Nazareth will enter the gym on Wednesday for a non-conference match starting at 7 p.m.

Volleyball drops tough match to New Paltz

OSWEGO — The volleyball team played host to the defending SUNYAC champion New Paltz last night. The Lakers came right out of the gate, winning the opening set 25-16. They would drop the following three in a 3-1 loss to the visiting Hawks. Melissa Lussier, Junior, led the team with 14 kills along with 2 aces through the contest. The group looks to bounce back today versus Oneonta at 1 p.m. in the Max Ziel Gymnasium.

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