The volleyball team wrapped up regular-season play on Friday night with a close loss to the Connecticut College Camels. For the first time in five years, the team will not take a winning record into postseason play. Despite winning five of their last six matches, the Cards finished 13-13. Wesleyan is now the eighth seed heading into the NESCAC Championship and will head up to Medford to face off against top seed Tufts on Friday night.

“Despite the loss, the Conn. College match was actually really encouraging,” said Laura Yim ’13. “We were able to compete with one of the best teams in the NESCAC and so we have high expectations about what we can accomplish in the tournament next week.”

The Camels (21-5, 8-2 NESCAC) were a clear favorite heading into the match on Friday, but the Cardinals were not intimidated, gaining confidence from the fact that over the season, they had proven they could hang with the best in the conference. The two teams battled back and forth for dominance throughout the match, and it was close and competitive throughout. In the first frame, the Camels narrowly bested the Cards, taking the set 25-23. The second was a reversal of scores, and the Cards battled to take the set 25-23. The third set went Wesleyan’s way, and the Cardinals dominated the Camels, taking the set 25-15. Although Wesleyan appeared to have all the momentum, the Camels were able to pull together as a team, and they took the next set 25-17. The hosts were able to pull out a 15-11 victory in the final set, securing the 3-2 victory.

With the loss, Wesleyan finished NESCAC play with a 4-6 mark, its first sub-.500 mark in NESCAC play since 2005 (3-7). Six of the Cardinals’ 10 league matches were decided in five sets, by far the highest figure among the eleven NESCAC squads. Wesleyan was also one of only two conference squads (along with Tufts) to take down defending NESCAC champion Williams.

The Cardinals had some standout players in the match, receiving key performances from Casey Reed ’12 and Ellie Healy ’10. Reed led the Cardinals with an astounding 18 kills, and she also had eight digs in the effort. Healy, having just reached the unprecedented milestone of 4,000 assists in her Wesleyan career, put in another great performance, racking up 40 assists, five kills, and 14 digs. Senior Ashley Farrow also had a great match, contributing 12 kills. Anchoring the Cards’ defense was junior libero Ruby Hernandez, who amassed 16 digs in the match.

Wesleyan will now turn its attention to Tufts (26-3, 8-2 NESCAC) in the first match of the tournament. The Jumbos defeated the Cardinals earlier in the season, 3-1, but the team has improved a lot since then and will look to put up a strong fight against an excellent Jumbo squad.