Women’s Volleyball VS. SUNY Canton

Alyssa VanPelt, Staff Writer

SUNY Oneonta’s Women’s Volleyball team played against SUNY Canton on October 26^th, 2024. Ashley Coyle is the head coach and is currently in her eighth season. According to the Official Website of SUNY Oneonta Athletics, “Coyle joined the coaching staff at SUNY Oneonta in March of 2017 after spending two seasons as the assistant volleyball coach at the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT.” According to her coach page, “she was an assistant with St. Lawrence  University for two years (2013-15). At both the Coast Guard Academy and St. Lawrence,  Coyle was actively involved in all aspects of the volleyball program. At both stops, Coyle coached All-Conference, All-Region, and All-American players. While at St. Lawrence, she also served as an assistant compliance officer for the Saints’ Division I men’s and  women’s ice hockey programs.” 

The game begins. The first serve resulted in both teams battling the ball back and forth for several passes over the net before Canton scored the game’s first point. After Canton swept two points, Oneonta began scoring several points. Oneonta gained seven points before Canton could secure their third. The first break was called when Oneonta had twelve points to Canton’s six. After the break, Oneonta continues to pick up points with Canton slowly picking it back up. The first set ends with Oneonta winning, twenty-five to fifteen.  

The second set begins with Oneonta scoring the first point. Unlike in the first set,  Canton is sweeping Oneonta in points. In the beginning, they secured a four-to-five-point lead, the score resulting in two points for Oneonta to Canton’s seven. However, Oneonta’s coach calls a break, as Canton is leading. After the break, Oneonta begins to catch up to Canton and surpasses with a one-point lead, the score reading eleven to ten.

The second set continues to be a closer game than the first as Oneonta only leads with three points. However, when the score read twenty-four to nineteen, it looked like Oneonta was going to win the second set, but one of the Canton girls struggled to get to her feet after falling. Oneonta looked to have scored a point, but it was decided to be invalid as one of Canton’s players, number nine, could not participate. One of the health staff members came over to inspect and it was decided number nine would finish out the set. The second set began again, however, Canton only scored one more point before the set finished with Oneonta’s twenty-five to twenty. Canton is picking it back up with this second set despite the unfortunate injury. Following the set, number nine of Canton would get her ankle braced and remain out for the game. 

The third set begins, and Canton scores the first point of the set. Canton leads the game with a three-to-four-point lead for most of the set. However, when Canton was at nineteen points, Oneonta caught up to tie with Canton from being four points behind. This set has been the closest all afternoon. After their tie at nineteen points, they continue to struggle between being one point ahead of the other. Oneonta led with twenty to nineteen, then they tied again at twenty points. At Oneonta’s twenty-four to Canton’s twenty-two, Canton picked up a point to now have twenty-three points as the ball going out of bounds gave a point to Canton. If it had not gone out of bounds, Oneonta would have won then. Canton served at twenty-four to twenty-three, but Oneonta won the final point. The third set ends with Oneonta winning with twenty-five to twenty-three. The final point total is Oneonta’s seventy-five to Canton’s fifty-eight.