Sydney Jones talks MVC title, being a captain and the 2018 season

Sydney Jones talks MVC title, being a captain and the 2018 season

01/25/2018 | 8:42:00 | Softball

Jones talks being a captain, last year's NCAA Tournament run and how the team can do it again

By: Tony McDaniel, SIUSalukis.com

This is the fourth part of a series of five installments leading up to the start of the 2018 Saluki softball season. To read the first three features, click the links below.
Part one: Maris Boelens
Part two: Kelsey Gonzalez
Part three: Katelyn Massa

Senior third baseman Syndey Jones is in her final season at Southern Illinois and was selected by the coaching staff as one of the team's three captains. Saluki Athletics sat down with Jones to discuss her new role with the team, last year's Missouri Valley Conference Championship run and trip to the NCAA Tournament and took a look forward to the 2018 season.

You, as well as Savannah Fisher and Savanna Dover, we're selected as team captains this year. What does it mean to you to be a leader on your team?

I think it's awesome. It's a great honor that Kerri [Blaylock] gave us. It's a lot to own up to. We've had great captains ever since I've been here. My freshman year we had awesome captains and Kelsey [Gonzalez] was a captain for two years. Learning from them definitely helps, but we get to implement our own style of a way to run the team this year. Guiding the younger players is going to be our biggest thing.

What kind of things did you learn from your previous captains? Is there someone that you're modeling yourself after?

I definitely think Kelsey is a person you'd want to look up to. She was captain for two years and that's for a reason. She kind of handled everything with poise. She'd have the tough conversations when she needed to. She'd pump up the team when she needed to. She was always a very even-keeled player even when she was doing good or bad. You'd never know if she went 0-for-3 or 3-for-3.

I think that's the biggest thing for us as captains. We need to be able to channel our emotions so if we are playing poorly, you can't tell. I think the younger players look up to us in that sense. It's important that we don't have bad body language or bad attitude. That would really effect the rest of the team.

Last year the team was fortunate enough to win the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. What was it like to win and celebrate with your teammates?

It was awesome. I won a state championship in high school and it was nothing like winning that conference championship. I won a national championship in travel ball, and that doesn't compare to it either.

With all the work that you put in in college softball and how long the season is, it all pays off in the end when you get to do something like win a conference title. No one expected us to do it. I think that made it all the better. We got to prove everybody wrong in the process.

We were still pretty young last year. [Savanna] Dover was a junior and Brianna [Jones] was a sophomore. We only had three seniors. That was another cool thing too; we knew a lot of people would be back this year.

You got to play in your first NCAA Tournament. That must've been something you dreamt about when you were a kid.

Yeah, that was a lot of fun. Playing at Ole Miss was fun, that environment was crazy. We've never played in anything like that before. I know that I personally had never played in anything like that. It's the SEC. The stadium was gorgeous. It was a lot of fun. Our fans travelled really well too which was nice.

You mentioned bringing back most of last year's team. How do you think winning the conference and playing in the NCAA Tournament will help the team this year in its bid to repeat?

Since the majority of our team experienced that, we will be able to channel that experience from last year. We know how to succeed on that stage now. We know what is expected of us to get us back there. Teaching the freshmen will be easier, because we have a big group that experienced a post-season run last year. They know what we went through last year. We know how to get there again.

This year, our motto has been to not compare ourselves to last year's team and not try to be that team. We want to be this year's team and hopefully write our own story. We've got a big group of freshmen coming in and we lost some big bats from last year's class. I think these freshmen can step up and play a big role. I think they're capable of that.

What will it take from the whole team to make it two-straight MVC titles?

I definitely think that it falls on our team chemistry for the most part.

We're going to have a pretty new outfield. Jenny Jansen will probably be our center fielder. She's a freshman and will have to lead the outfield. Susie [Baranski] is still young in right field. We need our young players to mesh well. The left side of our infield is me and Savannah Fisher, we've been playing together since before we came to SIU; we played travel ball together for two and a half seasons before we got here. I've played with her for a long time, so I think we will be fine there. We're breaking in Kyleigh Decker for Shaye Harre at first. Maddy Vermejan and Kyleigh didn't work much together last year since Shaye played first.

It's going to be important that everyone communicates and knows where to go with the ball when its hit to us. Our offense is going to speak for itself, we will be fine there. We are centered on our defense. This team has always relied on our defense. That was the game changer last year and we're going to have to click again on defense this year for sure.

On a personal note, this is your senior season. What do you want to accomplish on a personal level?

I definitely want to be more consistent in the lineup. In the last couple of years, I've hit some really high highs and some really low lows. I want to stay more consistent with my bat.

I also want to be a good leader. I've never been in this situation before. I was a captain in high school, but this is a much bigger deal. I think that brining my maturity and leading the team in a way that takes us in the right direction will set a positive example for everyone else.

You mentioned hitting. You're coming off of a year where you led the team in home runs, but your batting average was down from past years. Why do you think that was and how do you keep the power numbers up while improving your average?

I was streaky last year. It's hard as you get older in the Valley because people find out what you struggle to hit and where your weaknesses are. I think it's more important to have a high average than hit for power; I'd rather hit .300 than have 9 home runs. I need to be more consistent in the middle of our lineup.

We've made some adjustments in the fall and in practice this spring and I think my power numbers will remain the same and I think that in turn that will help my average. My strikeouts have gone down every year, which is good. I'm putting the ball into play more and hopefully they'll turn into hits more often.

Is there anything in particular you're looking forward to in the upcoming season?

We play in Florida twice. I always look forward to going to my home state. It's my senior year and I think my family is going to travel pretty well, so I'm definitely looking forward to going there. South Carolina will be fun too. It's an SEC stadium and there should be some good competition there. Our trip to San Antonio is new for us. We're going there instead of Louisiana, which is cool. It's a new place and we've played in Louisiana twice. My favorite trips are the Florida trips, but I'm a little biased.