The volleyball team faced new competition in the NESCAC this weekend and came out on top, winning two of its three matches. The Jumbos' overall record, however, remains at .500 because of a loss to Wellesley earlier in the week.
Before the weekend began, Tufts traveled to Wellesley to play a single match. The squad was unable to get into the win column; it went down, 0-3. On Saturday, though, the Jumbos began the NESCAC weekend on a good note and ended on one as well. The girls won their first match against Trinity (3-0). But that was followed by a disappointing loss to Wesleyan (2-3). Luckily for the team, the day was saved by a well-deserved win against Connecticut College (3-2).
The Brown and Blue launched the weekend with a 3-0 win over Trinity (15-13, 15-10, 15-13). The team dominated the match even though the Jumbos were trying out a new defense. The win showed that the change clearly worked for them.
"We played well," coach Kris Herman-Talon said. "Trinity struggled. In the third game, we were down 12-1 and came back to win. We want to play by the motto 'Never Say Die'. We were trying a new defense. It was generally successful."
The pair of Jessica Stewart and Amy Cronin, with 15 and 12 kills, respectively, dominated the offense in this match. Tri-captain Karen "Bear" Sillers only had eight kills in two games because of the same injury that plagued her game last weekend, lower back spasms. Even with the injury she aided the defense with five digs. The leader of the defense was tri-captain Kyre Austin with ten digs.
"We changed the defense around, which placed more of the responsibility onto Kyre," Herman-Talon said. "She is a great defensive player, setter, and server."
"We definitely played our game in this match," Cronin said. "The passing and serving was good, which allowed us to get in a groove offensively. In one game we let them get a 12-1 lead, but we fought back and won the game. We weren't going to sit down and lose to a team we were clearly better than."
Next, the squad faced Wesleyan and took a hit in the loss column. The Cardinals took the match 2-3 (15-7, 8-15, 15-13, 11-15, 8-15). The Jumbos' starters combined for a total of only 37 kills over all five matches. Cronin led the team with 10 kills.
"This match was very frustrating because we didn't put them away when we needed to," Cronin said. "We were ahead in a couple of games, and we let them back in and they won them. They had a good middle attack, but we lost the fifth game because we missed serves. In a rally score game you can't afford to make many mistakes, especially serving errors."
Serving has plagued the team for the entire season. In this match, Nancy Phear controlled the serving with five service aces. The defense was placed into the hands of defensive specialist Megan Pitcavage, who had 15 digs.
"They were a one dimensional offense," Herman-Talon said. "They went mostly to the middle attack and we couldn't stop her. We should have won. They were gritty. We thought we'd win in four games, when we didn't, it hurt our morale a little. We didn't pass as well as we needed to. We were lacking that killer instinct. It is a hole in our game that we need to improve."
Saturday ended with a defeat of Connecticut College. The Jumbos went five games against the Camels, squeaking out a win in five (15-12, 9-15, 8-15, 15-5, 15-11). During this game, Herman-Talon mixed up the lineup. Sillers was able to sit out and rest her back. Paulette Pacheco saw some playing time in Sillers' spot and succeeded in having a season high 11 kills. Pacheco not only lit up the offense, she also led the defense with 14 digs (tied with Austin).
"Overall, we controlled the match," Herman-Talon said. "I thought we'd win overall... no matter what line-up we had, we were a better team. Playing five games in college volleyball allows the better team, that day, to win. They were a competitive team. We had players at different positions. Amy [Cronin] played all around, which isn't normal. She usually never sees the back row. There were no individual problems, just confusion because we had players in different positions."
"This match was a little too close for comfort," said Cronin. "They were not a very good team and it shouldn't have taken us five games to beat them. The good thing was that a lot of people had a chance to play."
Before the NESCAC weekend, Herman-Talon's squad faced Wellesley in a single match. The Jumbos only managed to score a total of seven points in three games (2-15, 1-15, 4-15). "We couldn't pass in the first game," said Herman-Talon. "They dominated us. We got our butt kicked. They served us tough. They got points by our mistakes."
The three front row starters, Stewart, Cronin, and Sarah Leistikow, combined for a total of 15 kills in 53 attempts. Stewart and Leistikow each had one service ace and had 4 and 3 digs, respectively. "Wellesley is a top ranked team in the country," Cronin said. "They are a great serving team, and we couldn't pass a lot of their balls. We couldn't really generate any offense against them because their serving and offense was so good."
The Jumbos play a home game today versus Clark.
