This weekend, St. John’s volleyball hosted four schools at the annual Kaiser Classic.

In our first game against Bryant University, our team came out with a lot of enthusiasm. We hustled on every point, the bench was screaming, and we played our game regardless of how skillful our opponent was.

I say this all the time, even when I was a player and now that I am a manager, “when the energy is good, no matter the situation, there is always a way.” Mistakes are going to happen, that’s normal.

This team is learning day by day that when their energy is high and they encourage one another, it’s much easier to win games.

We defeated Bryant in our first game in a sweep. Winning in general does amazing things for a team’s confidence, especially on our squad since we had major confidence issues last season.

The second match against Farleigh Dickinson ended in another sweep. Even when a mistake was made, we were able to brush it off and keep on moving forward.

Those who don’t know volleyball or have never played the game have to realize that the game has everything to do with momentum. The team who is the loudest will usually win, and that, thus far, has been our team.

Our matchup with St. Francis was an exact replica of the previous two matches we played as it ended in yet another sweep.
The last match against Idaho State was our toughest match at the tournament.

We ended up losing 3-1 because our energy was down and our confidence ended up in the gutter.

Idaho State wasn’t doing anything special. We’ve seen it all before; tall girls, high volleyball IQ, etc. We were simply beating ourselves.

In our previous matches, we made mistakes and were able to shake them off, but not in that match.
Most who were watching probably assumed that Idaho State was the better team, but that wasn’t the case. They were just able to maintain their energy and composure while we could not.
All in all, I believe that maintaining positive energy on the court is going to be the biggest test for our team moving forward.