The Wolves Den was full of energy as “Enter Sandman” by Metallica played just before the SSU women’s volleyball match vs. Cal State East Bay on Saturday afternoon. This game featured two teams riding in with a lot of momentum, with SSU on a 7-game winning streak and Cal State East Bay on a 6-game streak. The SSU women were not on the winning end in this one losing 3-1. After being “humbled,” the team is ready to turn the page.

The contest featured a lot of back and forth. The first set started fairly even, but CSUEB would eventually take command, winning it 25-17. The second set was the opposite. SSU got on a hot streak and won 25-15. The third match was the closest, but the Seawolves got edged out 25-23. CSUEB won the contest in the fourth set, 25-14.

The team made an effort to stay positive after the loss. Head Coach Bear Grassl, with that mindset, emphasized a lot of the struggles were fixable, “It’s an interesting match when they only scored 64 points, we scored 63; we had 53 kills, they had 42, but we really shot ourselves in the foot a lot, we missed the 10 serves, we got aced 10 times- 11 times. They really hurt us in serve and pass, and that’s the first time that’s happened to us in a while. This is the classic you lose third game in a close one, and in the fourth, you collapse.” 

Sophomore Abri Rogers shared the team’s attitude when times get tough, “I think we’re really good at supporting each other and lifting each other up when things are hard, we talk, we communicate.” Redshirt Junior Jaden Krist echoed Rogers’ thoughts about positivity, “I think we gave a lot of effort; we’re always super good about being positive and staying positive.”

While maintaining a positive mindset, the team also understands that some things must be cleaned up. Grassl shared some thoughts, “You’ve gotta handle the ball better; after three games, we had held them in every way you could hold a team and still were behind 2 to 1.” 

Rogers shared a player’s perspective, “Communicating more and bringing each other’s energy up, even on the bench or on the court, saying positive things to each other and working together.” Krist expanded on the player’s point of view, “I think we had some service errors, and serve-receive errors that we can control more. We could also just work on our attitude too when we get down.”

The result was less than desirable for the Seawolves, but the team believes Saturday’s match was a good reality check. The Seawolves had won their last seven games handily. Grassl said, “You’ve gotta play like you think you might lose.” Rogers agreed, “I think it’s kind of a wake-up call when we lose. It doesn’t feel good. It never feels good to lose, but this is kind of the point where we can have a turning point after losing, and we can win a bunch of matches and work really hard.” Krist felt the same way, “I think this is gonna set us up for a good next game. We’re gonna work really hard in practice this week and try to come back, but yeah, I think this is good for us. You’ve gotta be humbled every once in a while.”