By: Brayden Peters
BROCKPORT, NY - All is well for Brockport’s volleyball team as they shut out Buffalo State 3-0, continuing their home undefeated winning streak. They now sit at .500 at 9-9 for the season while Buffalo State drops to 12-10. Head Coach Jim Clar believes that there is significance to playing at home this season.
“This court is sacred to us, and we want to defend it,” Clar said.
Out of the gate, Brockport applied a significant amount of pressure on the Bengals. Buff State did not seem to know what had hit them as they struggled to return the ball on Brockport’s attacks. This played a role in the Bengals’ offensive struggles as they had a total of eight attack errors.
Brockport was ruthlessly attacking Buff State, allowing them to get 12 kills to the Bengals’ five. With the help of Jordan Thompson, Brockport was able to blast past Buff State with a 25-9 win in the first set.
It was the same story for the second set. Although Buff State did manage to keep the game close in the beginning and had more digs, they still struggled to steal any momentum from Brockport. They had only five kills again and had six more attack errors.
Brockport was riding their wave of momentum from the last set, recording 14 kills and two service aces. They kept the Bengals on their heels the entire way, allowing Brockport to pick up a 25-13 win in the set.
It looked like the Golden Eagles were going to finish off Buff State in brutal fashion again for the third set.
The Bengals managed to gain some resurgence offensively. They took advantage of a lot of errors and miscues from Brockport, allowing them to get 12 kills and two service errors.
The Golden Eagles did seem to lose a bit of their rhythm offensively. They had six service errors along with four attack errors. The offense still managed to be productive, which helped Brockport stay in the game.
It was back and forth between the two teams. However, during the back half of the third set, Thompson was still smiling and stayed positive throughout. She stresses the importance of a positive mentality.
“Being a fifth year, I really try to focus on the mental side of the game because I know coming in it’s hard for college ball, especially for freshmen,” Thompson said. “I’m just trying to be a good role model and show that it can still be fun, but still be competitive.”
With her mentality, Thompson came up in clutch along with Emma Schumaker, who managed to get the game winning kill. With the kill, the Golden Eagles escaped the set 28-26.
Thompson ended the day with 15 kills, three service aces, 11 digs, and 18 points. Her phenomenal season continues as she is first in kills, kills per set, points, and points per set in the conference. She believes she is just doing her job and that it wasn’t a lone effort to accomplish these milestones.
“I’m just doing all I can do to help the team and shout out to my team,” Thompson said. “They make it happen as well. We all do so well together and couldn’t do it without them.”
Thompson wasn’t the only one who had a solid day overall. Schumaker came up with 11 kills, two service aces, one dig and 13 points.
The Golden Eagles will go on the road next to take on SUNY Geneseo in Geneseo. This will be one of Brockport’s final SUNYAC games as they enter the last stretch of games before the post season.