Photo Courtesy of Kathleen Talbot
By Kieran Dougherty, Staff Writer
One week ago, the River Hawk women’s volleyball team was upset by Juanita 3-0, knocking them out of the Landmark playoffs and leaving the fate of the team in the hands of the NCAA selection committee. The River Hawks were confident that despite the playoff loss, they had shown enough to give them a bid into the tournament. They finished the season with an impressive 22-6 record despite not being able to play their final two regular season games due to circumstances out of the team’s control. On Nov. 8, the team came together to watch the selection show, and see if their season would come to an end or not.
First-year middle blocker Amanda Gore described what it was like in the moments leading up to the season-changing announcement. “There really was not a lot of anxiety in the room,” Gore said, “we knew that we had done the best we could and left it all out on the court, so that really gave us some peace of mind no matter what the decision was.” Fortunately, for any players who were just doing a very good job at hiding their anxiety, the River Hawks were given a second chance at a championship and gifted a bid into the 2021 NCAA tournament. They were given the three seed and will face off against six seeded Maine Maritime Nov. 12 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Gore said that the team is ready for the challenge.
“We believe in ourselves to be able to get the job done and we are going to give it everything we have to first, win the regional championship and then go on to win the national championship.”
Maine Maritime will be a good opponent for the River Hawks to gauge where they rank amongst the rest of the field. With a 20-6 record, Maine Maritime will be no easy contest. The River Hawks will need to execute in all aspects of the game in order to move on to the next round and face the winner of Bowdoin vs. Johnson and Wales match to continue their journey to the championship.
A championship is not the only thing motivating the team, however. There is a deep drive amongst the underclass members of the team to win for their seniors.
“Our seniors have been through a lot,” Gore said, “they are some of the most supportive people that I have ever played with and honestly, I want it more for them than I want it for myself. They take every teammate under their wing, and they have taught us all so much and we just want to win for them.”
Not only do the senior players make an impact off the court with their teammates, but they have also been a large part in the team’s success this year. Three seniors received end of season awards from the Landmark Conference. Lizzie Herestofa was named the Landmark Conference Defensive Specialist of the Year while Paige Sfiroudis was named to the first-team All-Landmark team and Kody Dillon was named to second-team All-Landmark team. Their performance this weekend will be a deciding factor on if the River Hawks are still competing one week from now in the second round of the tournament.
There are high expectations for the River Hawks during the upcoming national tournament. With every game from now on being win-or-go-home, the River Hawks are going to have to continue leaving everything they have out on the court and hopefully they can do just enough to bring a championship back to Susquehanna.
