The volleyball team was victorious on Friday night with a 3-0 home win against Trinity. The team is now 13-3 overall with eight games remaining and is therefore guaranteed to finish with a winning record for the third consecutive year. The win improved the Cardinals’ NESCAC record to 4-1. Wesleyan is now tied with Connecticut College for third in the conference.

“Friday’s win was important first and foremost because it was a NESCAC match, but also because it helped prepare the team for this week’s game against Amherst,” said defensive specialist Ruby Hernandez ’11. “We’ve already put our loss to [Connecticut College] behind us, we learned from our mistakes, and, if anything, it has only made the team stronger.”

The first game of Friday’s match was an extremely close affair. Trinity jumped out to a 5-1 lead before Wesleyan started to gain some momentum, pushing the score to 16-10 in favor of the Cards. With Wesleyan leading 29-25, the Bantams did not back down, scoring three straight points to close. Wesleyan finally won 30-28.

The second game was not quite as close. Wesleyan jumped out to an 11-4 lead and never let the Bantams closer than four points after that. Wesleyan led 29-17 before the Bantams scored four times to close the gap to 29-21, but Trinity’s next serve sailed into the net, giving Wesleyan the 30-21 win.

Wesleyan remained in control throughout the third game. The Cardinals held leads of 14-4 and 21-7. The final score was 30-18. This game marked the first time since 2004 that Wesleyan had held Trinity to under 20 points in a game. This was Wesleyan’s fifth straight win against the Bantams, improving its all-time record against Trinity to 45-14, by far its highest win total against any opponent.

Wesleyan’s strong defense was on display throughout the match. The Cardinals recorded 57 digs, including 16 from outside hitter Lisa Drennan ’09 and 10 from setter Ellie Healy ’10, permitting Trinity’s offense to record only 24 kills. The Bantams committed 26 errors, giving them a hitting percentage of -.017. Wesleyan recorded 47 kills, including 20 from Drennan, and committed only 14 errors for a .287 hitting percentage.

Wesleyan does not play again until Friday at Amherst. Healy, however, does not believe the lack of a midweek game will hurt the Cards.

“I think it’ll be even better because we get a nice break this weekend, and we get to practice really hard next week,” Healy said. “I think it’s really good for us.”

“The interim period between the [Trinity] match and this week’s Amherst and Tufts games will be a nice break for the team,” Hernandez added. “The lack of a midweek match will definitely help the team mentally prepare.”

Wesleyan will now turn its attention to its Little Three rival, Amherst. The teams previously met in the Wesleyan Invitational, with Wesleyan winning the match 3-2. Three of the past four meetings between the two teams have gone to five games; the teams have split the past four matches. Amherst defeated Tufts and Bowdoin over the weekend to take sole possession of first place in the NESCAC at 4-1, one game ahead of 2-0 Williams. The Cards will also take on Tufts (1-3 NESCAC) in a Saturday match at Amherst.