JOHN CULLEN
Special to The Leader
Looking to improve on a 5-0 start, the Blue Devil women’s volleyball team traveled to New Paltz over the weekend to take part in the Hawks Invitational. With wins against Mount Saint Mary and New York University on Friday, the Blue Devils got off to the best start in program history, improving their record to 7-0.
Fredonia’s win streak was ended Saturday in heartbreaking fashion by tournament champions, the Stockton University Ospreys, before the team bounced back to beat Sage College in their last game.
To start the tournament, the Blue Devils took down New York University in four sets, 27-25, 25-18, 26-28, 25-21 with standout performances by senior Jess DiChristopher, junior Sara Madison and senior Paulina Rein. This came to a total of 36 kills on offense, which was largely due to their stellar defensive play.
DiChristopher was the only Fredonia player to be named to the all-tournament team, putting up stellar numbers over the weekend finishing with 55 kills and 11 blocks in four games.
“Our offensive players get a lot of attention because of the statistics they put up,” said Fredonia assistant coach Ryan Maloney, “but our defensive players have really been the story of this season so far. Lauren Hokaj, Rachel Poirier and Courtney Poirier have all been tremendous.”
Maloney pointed out one catalyst that has helped spur the impressive start to the season.
“Our sophomore class (Jane Garrity, Kristen Stanek, Rachel Poirier and Courtney Poirier) have made huge improvements this year and are a big reason for the fast start.”
Friday’s second game, a three-set win over Mount Saint Mary, will be one to remember for Fredonia senior Kelly Edinger. Edinger broke Fredonia’s all-time assist record during the second set, passing the previous record of 3,572 held by Alyssa Torpey (’09).
“[Edinger] has an instinctive feel for running our offense, and for the last four years she really takes ownership of how we perform as a team on the court and how we act off of it,” said Maloney, “We wouldn’t be where we are right now without her.”
Despite Edinger chipping in with 53 assists and Fredonia having the advantage in kills 66-59, the Blue Devils fell for the first time of the season on Saturday to Stockton University. After splitting the first four games, Stockton came out on top 16-14 in the tie-breaking set.
“The loss to Stockton in the 5th set was upsetting, but we took a lot more away from that game than just a loss,” said junior Megan Collins. “We have set some pretty high expectations for ourselves this season.”
Fredonia ended the weekend on a positive note, defeating Sage College in four sets with scores of 25-12, 24-26, 25-23 and 25-8. Collins and DiChristopher each delivered 12 kills in the win while Rein added four service aces.
“With the depth and leadership we have on our team this year we are continuing to get better and we learned a lot about what we can bring into SUNYAC [competition],” said Rein. “What we took away from our loss this weekend was that our energy on and off the court needs to keep improving to be even more successful.”
This message was reiterated by the coaching staff as well as the players.
“Even if our record shows that we’re doing well, we haven’t played a single SUNYAC match yet,” echoed Maloney. “We have a lot to work on in practice the next two weeks before SUNYACs.”
The Blue Devils women’s volleyball team will face off against Nazareth in Rochester this Tuesday before traveling to Ohio next weekend to compete in The Hiram Invitational, which will be their last non-conference matches before SUNYAC competition begins.