After their first tournament at Holy Cross last week, the Stony Brook Seawolves women’s volleyball team travelled to Syracuse for the Syracuse Candlewood Suites Invitational opposing them against four challenging teams including the school of Colorado, Rutgers and Oakland Universities.
If the Seawolves came up short against Colorado on Friday morning, they rapidly got back on their feet and beat the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Syracuse University 3-2 later in the day. The win over ACC’s Syracuse gave the Seawolves their first victory over a conference-opponent since 2007.
Players such as sophomore captain Lo Hathaway, senior Kaitlin Costello, Stephanie McFadden and Melissa Rigo played a huge role in leading the Seawolves to the win. While Hathaway recorded 27 digs, Costello led the game with 19 kills, and Rigo added seven digs and five kills.
“Statistically, they led, but we had more heart, fight and stability,” head coach Coley Pawlikowski said. “We discovered we have to control our emotions and our side of the court. Rather than have peaks and valleys, we learned we learned we need to be consistently solid.”
After beating a power conference opponent, the Seawolves unfortunately fell against the Rutgers (3-2) and Oakland (3-0), which ended their journey to the Syracuse Candlewood Suites Invitational.
“We need to learn from that match. We need to stay aggressive and play hard from the first whistle to the last dead ball that hit the floor with no mental breaks in between. That’s the next step,” coach Pawlikowski said concerning the team performance against the Rutgers.
According to coach Pawlikowski, the loss was perceived as an opportunity to actually see where the team was standing as of right now.
“I liked that we had the opportunity to play again right after a loss and a chance to push ourselves. We were mentally tired in sets one and two. In set three, we battled and nearly pushed Oakland to a fourth set,” coach Pawlikowski said. “That’s what we need to focus on—how we responded in that set. I’m proud we pushed. Next time, we just have to do it right away.”
On Sept. 10, Stony Brook will travel to Queens, New York for a match against St John’s University starting at 7 p.m.
