By SPENCER BATES
OLEAN — Ahead of her team’s matchup against Chautauqua Lake, Olean girls volleyball coach Michelle Acierno knew her side was in for a tough battle.
The Huskies and the Eagles had just three losses between them going into the match, one apiece courtesy of the same team in Portville.
So, Acierno was prepared for this match to come down to the wire. Throughout the four sets that it took for Chautauqua Lake to capture victory, that is exactly how it played out as the Eagles won 25-20, 23-25, 25-15, 25-21.
Narrow margins split the sides at the end of the day with only one set being separated by more than five points. This, of course, meant that smaller mistakes were all the more impactful. And as much as the Huskies had their momentary lapses, they also had times in which they were able to dig deep and respond well, much to the satisfaction of Acierno.
“I knew coming in, this was going to be a good game,” Acierno said. “Chautauqua Lake always has a good program. We missed a lot of serves tonight, it wasn’t our night with our serving, at least in the first set, and we had a lot of errors on the attacking side of things, but I was very proud of them for battling back from a 14-point deficit. … I thought it was just a night of really good volleyball, and I was really proud of my girls for never giving up.”
There were a number of times in which Olean found itself the victim of a point-run by its guests, but just about every time, it was able to find an answer. By one way or another, the Huskies scratched and clawed for each and every point they recorded, which, Acierno noted, speaks to the emotional and mental strength within her team.
“We focus a lot on moving on after one mistake, (we try not to) let one mistake turn into 10, which, at times, it still did tonight,” Acierno said. “But yeah, I think for being a pretty young team … it says a ton about their emotional maturity. I’m very proud of them. I’ve definitely had teams in the past that would give up in those types of situations. We just don’t focus too much on the score, we focus on our own game and what we need to do and try to just look inward and go from there.”
But ultimately, it was the small mistakes that condemned Olean. One area Acierno pointed out her side needed to improve in was its communication. Early in the match, there were instances of points being given away due to confusion on the floor, and each time, communication could have saved the point.
“Communication is a skill of the game, so obviously that’s something that we need to talk about tomorrow,” Acierno said. “(We need to) go over some different duties and jobs, and make sure that we trust each other on the court and stick to our own job and hopefully minimize some of those communication errors.”
Acierno also noted the other big area that needs attention is passing. At times, passes wound up too close to the net, creating confusion amongst the Huskies’ own players and possibly even teed up their opposition for easy points.
“When you pass the ball and it’s an overpass, you’re basically setting the other team up,” Acierno said. “We probably had five points, at least, in the first set that were all overpasses. Those are definitely some of the things that I’m going to look back on.”
Olean’s Haylie Bednarski (5) rises up for a kill against Chautauqua Lake. Bednarski recorded eight kills and 13 digs for the Huskies. (Spencer Bates)
That being said, all was not bad for Olean. The hosts had plenty of bright moments on the night, a significant number of which were provided by Viktoriia Lozynska. Popping up in crucial moments at the net, Lozynska provided the occasional, emphatic kill that sparked life back into the team.
“She’s a huge piece of the puzzle,” Acierno said of Lozynska. “We didn’t run our middles tonight as much as I would have liked to, but we just got to get her connecting a little bit more with my setter, and then I think she will be much more involved in future games. We’re working on involving her as much as we can.”
Lozynska finished with seven kills on the night. Alongside her, Ariana Finch provided her team with 28 assists, Haylie Bednarski recorded a team-high eight kills and 13 digs and Ava Moses recorded seven kills and eight digs.
Consecutive losses are never what a team wants, especially at the midpoint of the season. But according to Acierno there is still plenty of time to shore up the small details.
“In my opinion, it’s still early on in the season, and I feel like, as a team, we’re very clear on the things that we need to work on,” Acierno said. “So, hopefully later in the season, we’ll talk again, and a lot of that will be fixed.”
Olean will look to get back in the win column in its next match, set for Oct. 1 at 6:30 p.m., on the road at Dunkirk.
