Flight Plan Right On Schedule for BC Volleyball

New Boston College volleyball head coach Jason Kennedy struck a chord with his team before the season began. He didn't downplay winning, but he wanted to ensure the Eagles would grow. He mentioned how teams can win matches while playing poorly, and good performances don't always result in wins. All he wanted to make sure was that the team would continue to grow, thereby laying the foundation for its success.

Six matches later, those wins feel pretty good, as the first two weekends of the season became a potential springboard. Now 6-0, it's the best start in program history as BC looks to defend New England supremacy this weekend at Dartmouth.

"We've been talking a lot about winning and making it a habit," Kennedy said. "We've been learning how to compete. Over each of these six matches, we've grown and learned a little bit more about what it takes. Our first match (last weekend) was one of our roughest matches of the year, but by the end, we grit out a win. So we've had to learn how to win but we've also had to learn how to win ugly."

This is a whole new world for a BC team that earned four sweeps over its first six matches. It overcame slow starts to still earn all-set victories over Hartford, Providence and Sacred Heart in Power Gym in the first weekend before traveling to Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Ariz. this past weekend.

That's where BC faced adversity. It dropped the first set against Jacksonville State, which it had done the week before against Sacred Heart. After rallying to take the next two, the Gamecocks forced a decisive fifth set. BC won, 16-14, boosting itself for the rest of the weekend. It swept Southern Utah, then pounded the host GCU on Saturday to improve its record to 6-0.

"When we got on the flight (to Phoenix), I was nervous because we had taken a bunch of giddy students on a plane," Kennedy said with a laugh. "As we got out there, though, we got settled and each match became more business like. We started off shaky (against Jacksonville State), but I thought the third match we played was one of the cleanest ones on the trip. So we learned a lot about ourselves and how to deal with time changes and new facility. There was a big crowd and a band on Saturday. If you want to want to get to a point where you can play in the postseason, you have to be comfortable with that."

"We had a great opportunity to play out west," senior McKenna Goss said. "A lot of our families came out, and that was really huge for us. It's great to travel and play new, good teams, but it really built us internally to see our families. My grandmother is in Arizona and thought she would never be able to see me play volleyball again, so being able to call her and tell her I was coming to the West Coast was really cool."

The win over the Lopes extended a dream start, but the Eagles know there's a long road left. The season is still in its infancy, and BC is still a team with something to prove. There have been slow starts, including the dropped first sets against Sacred Heart and Jacksonville State. It proves that a team can still win even if it doesn't play well, but it also means there's so much more than what might meet the eye to this Boston College team.

"It feels like I've been talking about slow starts since my freshman year," Goss said. "That's something we're trying to change, though, and we're working on it. It's a combination of old insecurities entering a game, and we make mistakes or take a little heat off our hits. Once we get more comfortable and into our system, we have been pretty much unstoppable. We're using our scouting reports earlier against teams. GCU was the first time we ever had a really good start, so that can reflect our preparation and confidence moving forward."

"Everyone is still a little unsure of themselves," Kennedy said. "They are unsure of their potential in what they can do, but as matches develop, they are learning what they can do as a group. It seems to be a theme with us, and the first set has been our weakest in matches as a whole. But we learn a little bit about other teams and make adjustments. It just has to be focused to come out out of the gates a little bit stronger."

It's all part of an early adjustment period where the team is succeeding, even as it continues to grow. The Eagles head to the Dartmouth Invitational in New Hampshire this weekend and will face more regional opponents in the New England Challenge next week. The six matches represent challenging proving grounds before conference play opens at the end of the month.

There will likely be new forms of adversity. BC plays Lafayette this weekend at 4 p.m. but plays its two matches on Saturday over eight hours' time. The match against Siena is at 10:30 a.m. before a match against the host Big Green at 6:30 p.m. It's a day that will prove to be grueling when it starts when the sun comes up and ends after it sets at night.

"There was a high in beating GCU because we absolutely buried them," Goss said. "We have played matches where we won and walked out of the gym not feeling like that's how we're supposed to play. That's a turnaround for us mentally. We're in this amazing position where we're 6-0 and beat teams handily but still be disappointed because we can play better. There's more in us and we have to find out how to get that out."

"I knew what I wanted to expect (from the start of the year)," Kennedy said. "I think we're close to that. But now it's about building trust. I want to believe that this is what we're going to be (as a team) night in and night out. We've played great matches, but we've had matches where we haven't played up to our potential. So we need to find what will be the norm and stabilize around that.

"It's a big deal to win a lot of these regional matches," he said. "We play a lot of the teams from this area and we want to take care of business where we're supposed to."

All three matches this weekend can be seen via the Ivy League on ESPN Plus. On Friday, BC plays Lafayette at 4 p.m. with the aforementioned matches against Siena and Dartmouth at 10:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Flight Plan Right On Schedule for BC Volleyball

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Players Mentioned

McKenna Goss