Alex Hall
Journal Contributer
Tuesday Sept. 28 was “Spirit Night” for the Suffolk University Volleyball team, and, in case you haven’t kept up with them lately, they’ve turned their season around after a 0-6 start to the year.
Quietly, the Rams have won seven of their last 11 games heading into their match against Salem State on Oct. 7. Second-year head coach Heather Cox is very happy with what has transpired over the course of the season.
When asked about how the team has been able to rebound from their rough start to the season, and what she feels has accounted for this change, she sounded very optimistic.
“Well we’re a very young team and unity is huge in the game of volleyball,” she said. “I think we’ve begun to build our team chemistry.”
Looking at the score of the Rams’ wins this season — winning either in 3-0 or 3-1 fashion, or losing by close margins of 3-0 — it seems that may just be the case for this team.
Following up on her statement about how young this team is this season, she spoke about her eight freshman players and how they have adjusted from high school to college level volleyball.
“I think due to my style of coaching and our upper classmen’s expectations, they’ve had no choice, and I mean that in a good way,” Cox explained. “They have stepped up to the challenges and met and exceeded my expectations.”
Coach Cox explained that she has been able to rely on the more experienced members of the team, and it has allowed her a certain level of flexibility coaching the team.
“I think all of our upper classmen have been consistent, our captains Melissa [Griffin], Julie [Sullivan] and Kelly [Loder] have been our rocks this season.”
After a tough loss to Lesley University on Sept. 27, it was interesting to find out what she saw from the team, and what they can build on that may help them compete at a high level towards the latter part of the season.
“We made a few mistakes [in the match against Lesley], but overall we did what we needed to do. It was anyone’s game to win,” Cox said. “Defensively, it helped us get more disciplined; Lesley is a good hitting team which we haven’t seen much this year. I think we have a new aggression.”
The Rams’ volleyball team has a new identity after their tough start to the season. With that said, this group will have to continue to play at a high level if they want to make some noise in the tough GNAC. With this group, that seems like an attainable goal.
