Tufts dominates in four-game homestand

The Tufts volleyball team cruised to four straight victories last week, including two wins over NESCAC opponents: the team beat Bates and Endicott 3-1, then both Colby and Brandeis 3-0. The Jumbos dominated every match with well-placed kills, most of which were powerful but interspersed with strategic, gentle touches over the net, fooling opponents.

Tufts statistically outperformed its opponents last week. The team scored 97 points to Bates' 74 and made only nine errors in its matchup with Brandeis, in comparison to the latter's 26. Against Endicott, Tufts led in kills by a margin of 48-32.

Senior Maddie Kuppe continuously topped the board, scoring a total of 63 points across the four games. Closely following her was junior Elizabeth Ahrens, who scored 42 points.

The team has four new players this year -- first-years MacKenzie Bright, Alexandra Wood, Angela Yu and Katie Zheng -- who have already made a strong impact on the team.

"Game by game, we work to improve our team chemistry more and more, so I would definitely say that that would be something we always work on improving," Zheng said. "Also, improving our mental toughness [is important] because we have more NESCAC games coming up against other respectable opponents."

Saturday's homecoming game against Colby provided three sets of exciting play. The first set was especially close and ended in a final score of 25-23. Tufts was forced to play catch-up early on, as Colby dominated at the beginning of the set. However, a pair of kills from Kuppe propelled her team from a 22-22 scoreline to 24-23, with the final point of the set going to Tufts on a Colby error.

The Jumbos took the tough start in stride and slowly began to put the game out of reach for the Mules in the second set, maintaining a six- to seven-point lead.

The slower start from Tufts in the first set against Colby had been a result of their strenuous game schedule; the team played four teams in four days this past week.

“Playing multiple games a week definitely is something to prepare mentally and physically for; however, nothing beats the excitement and drive we have to play the game we love,” Yu said.

Despite Colby's attempt to regroup with a timeout, Tufts continued to bombard its opponent so that Colby could not gather enough momentum. The Mules conceded several attacking errors to hand the second set to the Jumbos, 25-19.  

Tufts opened the third set aggressively, with a strong offense to which Colby could produce no answer. The Jumbos scored seven points in a row in the middle of the set, giving them a resounding lead, and eventually took the set 25-16.

Tufts has consistently produced strong opening sets, winning the first set in all four games. Despite dropping one set each against Endicott and Bates, both games still boasted impressive scorelines, with Endicott scoring just 13 and 14 points in the last two sets, respectively, and Bates scoring only 12 in the first set. The biggest score disparity came in the game against Brandeis, in which Tufts won the first set by an impressive margin of 25-4. The Jumbos scored 13 points in a row, quickly downing the Owls. In the second and third sets, Brandeis managed to narrow the gap, but its efforts were not enough to prevent Tufts from quickly claiming its decisive win.

“Brandeis was a good competitor, and we, as a whole, played very clean volleyball in the first set," Yu said. "[In] the next sets, Brandeis made significantly [fewer] errors, but we still kept our flow and pushed through the next two sets.”

Last year, the Jumbos advanced to the NESCAC championship after claiming the top regular season record in the conference, and they are hoping to repeat that success this season.

“As a team, we want to learn and grow throughout the season," Yu said. "We want to use every opportunity as a learning moment and get better from our experiences.”

With this past week's sweep of their opponents, the Jumbos move to 13-4 on the season and 4-2 in the conference. Tufts will take on Wesleyan and Trinity -- both of whom are currently tied for last place in the conference -- at home this weekend and will look to move up further in the standings, where they currently are tied for fourth.