The St. Edward’s University volleyball team opened  its season with two victories at the Lady Buff Classic Sept. 3-4.

In their first match of the tournament, the Hilltoppers swept Eastern New Mexico in three sets, later falling to West Texas A&M late in the fourth set.

On the second day of play, St. Edward’s defeated East Central in three sets, but fell to Central Oklahoma late in the fifth match.

“It was a positive weekend for our team,” sophomore middle blocker Meredith Bard said. “We realized we are good, but we also realized we have the potential to be a great team.”

Bard also mentioned that the team needs to work on consistency during sets.

“To be great we need to be consistent,” Bard explained.

After the tournament, the team discussed times in the game when they were consistent and also when they were inconsistent. Bard said that in order to work on staying consistent throughout sets, team will spend more time on in-game situations in practices.

Freshman setter Mary McNamara explained that these types of practices will also help the team build more mental confidence.

“We have a great team, but we struggle mentally,” McNamara said. “Volleyball is a game of error, and it is hard to stay focused if you aren’t feeling confident in your abilities.”

McNamara also said that another positive aspect of the tournament was seeing the team play successfully with other top-ranked teams.

“Our coach always says that we don’t lose, we learn from it,” McNamara said. “We can’t take the teams that we feel we can beat lightly, but we also saw that we can play with top-rated teams.”

The Hilltoppers returned with six starters this year, with the addition of three new players. The team is also focusing on working cohesively together.

“We have all been bonding with our new team members,” Bard said. “They are all so great and fit right in. We are all great at supporting each other because we all are working towards the same goals.”

The Hilltoppers will play only 20 non-tournament regular season games in a shorter NCAA schedule this season.

“Our schedule is the toughest we have seen in my ten years,” head volleyball coach Sean Donahue said in a St. Edward’s press release. “With the shorter NCAA schedule this year, only one of our opponents is not a regional match-up, so there are no warm-up games or breaks in the schedule.”

Donahue also said that the team has so much potential this year.

“This team is definitely one of the greater teams that I have worked with in years, in terms of work ethic and talent,” Donahue said.

The Hilltoppers will next host the SEU Volleyball Classic beginning on Sept. 10 and take on UT-Permian Basin in their first conference game of the season Sept. 16.