A Split Season Opener

As we do most seasons, our team opened up the regular season in Cortland at the Red Dragon Invitational. It was nice to see so many parents and family members attend the match and start creating a new Fredonia Volleyball community. This is one of my favorite parts of being a coach... we constantly get to welcome new fantastic people into our program.

There are always a lot of good teams on opening weekend in Cortland and Friday we met Richard Stockton and Juniata, two perennially strong teams. While we dropped both matches on the first day, some good things did happen. Sara Madison continued to build on her stellar freshman year by hitting .400 against Richard Stockton, while Kelly Edinger looks more comfortable leading the offense than I've ever seen her. Jess DiChristopher also looks smarter and quicker at the net than in years past.

On a side note, it was last season in Cortland, before facing Juniata, that Lauren Hokaj was smacked in the side of the head with a ball by one of Juniata's hitters... during warm-ups. It was over a month before she could return to the court. Needless to say I guarded her head with my life this weekend, and it looks like it's paying off. I think this is going to be a special year for Lauren.

We opened up day two against St. Lawrence, a tough regional opponent that was suddenly a must-win game if we wanted to be strong again in our region. We even got to play the match in the back gym, a smaller venue that quickly became a loud, boisterous event. Megan Collins has been starting on the outside for us for the first time and we needed her to perform well to have the best chance to win... and she delivered with eight kills, several of which came at very opportune moments. Paulina Rein has also become a much smarter hitter, finishing with a very low 9% error rate. The four set victory was a proud moment for the coaching staff as our girls were able to come together and fight through some adversity.

Real, genuine communication is often a difficult thing to come by for college students. Our girls made us proud this past week in facing some moments of adversity with maturity and courage. Regardless of how far this team goes in 2014, this is a special group.

~Ryan

PS - thanks to Mark Edinger for the pictures!