Volleyball Facing Clarkson in Playoffs

Championship season is right around the corner and our Lady Saints have already qualified for the Liberty League tournament next Friday November 8 at Clarkson as the four seed. Boasting a 21-7 record the Lady Saints are currently ranked 6 in the region.

After two unlucky losses this past weekend, the team is back in action at the Brockport Invitational facing off against St. John Fisher College and SUNY Brockport who are seeded first and second respectively in their conferences. I sat down with head coach, Shelly Roiger, to talk about this crucial stretch in the year and not surprisingly she is relishing the challenge. She had this to say about her players, “SLU students in general are very motivated, and my team brings that same mentality to the court. They set and broke multiple team goals this season as a result of that and only thing we have to do left is focus on the now.”

Figuring out a team dynamic that works can be elusive due to the multitude of factors that have to go right over the course of the season, and the onus is on every individual involved with the team. Senior Mac Barnes gave an insight into how the Lady Saints motivated themselves, “we knew that we absolutely wanted to go to playoffs this year and that accomplishing manageable goals along the way would help us get to that point. We consistently re-evaluated what we wanted at every stage and set both mental and statistical goals such as playing ‘as one’ like it says on that back of our practice shirts to keep us working towards the same thing.”

It seems like our Lady Saints have found their secret formula just in time for the playoff push. The rematch against the Golden Knights will be the first semifinal of the Liberty League tournament next week. As the team is looking to avenge its earlier season loss, all students are invited to attend and support.