Big weekend for Blue Devils

After two wins on Friday, the SUNY Fredonia women's volleyball team knew that they were a single win away from reaching the finals of their own Blue Devil Invitational. After sweeping both Pitt-Greensburg and Sage University, the Blue Devils wanted to keep the momentum going against SUNY Oneonta on Saturday morning. Much to the misfortune of the Red Dragons, Fredonia did just that with another clean sweep victory 25-20, 25-20, and 25-15.

Fredonia got off to a very quick start in the first set and jumped on the Red Dragons' early lead by the strong play of senior middle blocker Chelsea Senn.

 "It (the start of the match) was awesome, our serving was on key,"said Senn. "That little spark that was missing in previous matches was there and it was awesome. It was beneficial to our self-esteem to jump on them and keep it going."

Head Coach Geoff Braun was really pleased with the way his team came out of the gate. "A fast start is always good, but we knew they were going to come at us eventually," said Braun. "Oneonta is a good team and they never stop fighting, so we knew that a fast start wouldn't stop them from coming at us."

Those fast starts reflected victories in the first two sets of the match for the Blue Devils. The third set started much differently with the Red Dragons taking an early 4-0.

"Volleyball is very momentous," Braun said. "Those first four points were an ace and three hitting errors on our part. That happens sometimes. But when it does happen, you have to be mentally tough."

Senior libero Sarah Zureck and the rest of the Blue Devils front rallied back to capture the victory in the third set and close out the match.

 "Usually when a team gets a lead on us, we try to stay calm," said Zureck. "We try to focus on our side of the net to do what we have to do to put the ball away and keep rolling."

The victory puts the Blue Devils in the finals of their host tournament Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. Coach Braun is happy with what his team has accomplished so far this weekend but knows that there is still work to be done.

"We like to play in Dods; it's a fun place to play. It's loud and the energy level is really good. We knew that when the finals came we wanted to be playing in it, not watching it. So we did well."

The players tend to agree with Coach Braun when it comes to playing at home. "It's one thing to be in our home gym, but it's another thing to win here," said Senn. "It's a great feeling because we have all of our fans here, we have so much support. Hopefully we can pull off a win in the final."

 "We set team goals and one of our goals was to win in Dods and that's what we are going to do later," Zureck added.

The Blue Devils, who pushed their record to 13-8 with the win over Oneonta.