The volleyball team lost both of its NESCAC matches on its second consecutive weekend trip to Maine when it played on Friday, Oct. 18 and Saturday, Oct. 19 but then defeated non-conference foe Rhode Island College. Coming off a loss against Colby, the Cardinals have now lost their past three conference matches, all of which were against Maine college rivals.
The first matchup of the weekend pitted Wesleyan against Bowdoin. The Cardinals knew going into the match that the Polar Bears were going to pose a significant challenge; Bowdoin was 5-1 entering the contest, compared to Wesleyan’s 2-4. However, the Cardinals were optimistic looking ahead to the match.
“Just because Bowdoin has a 5-1 NESCAC record doesn’t mean that we aren’t expecting to win,” wrote Captain Kim Farris ’14 prior to the match in an email to The Argus. “We are going to work our hardest during the week to prepare.”
At the conclusion of three sets, the Cardinals found themselves ahead 2-1. But Bowdoin was able to rally and win the next two sets, surviving a late Cardinal run in the fifth and deciding set. Bowdoin took the win 3-2 (24-26, 25-7, 22-25, 25-11, 15-11). While the overall match score was close at 3-2, a breakdown of the scores shows the match was more one-sided than the overall score suggests. Bowdoin won the second and fourth sets by a combined 32 points, winning 25-7 and 25-11. The two sets that Bowdoin lost were extremely close.
The Cardinals were unable to effectively run their offense, and as a result, Farris was the only Wesleyan player who broke double-digits in kills. This was largely because the Wesleyan defense struggled to adequately set the offense up; the Cardinals were often unable to return a serve at all, crumbling under 14 Bowdoin aces. Bowdoin’s defense was in top form, recording 21 total blocks to Wesleyan’s seven.
The loss saw Wesleyan’s NESCAC record drop to 2-5 and exposed several issues that the team hoped to improve upon the next day at Bates. The Cardinals hoped to rebound after the tough loss to Bowdoin and saw a good opportunity to do so; Bates was struggling, heading into the match with a lowly 1-6 NESCAC record.
Wesleyan dropped into an early hole by losing the first two sets by decisive scores, but managed to dig itself out with strong wins in the next two. The match came down to a competitive fifth set, in which Bates was able to separate itself from a 6-6 tie, securing the win 3-2 (25-18, 25-14, 20-25, 15-25, 15-11).
The Wesleyan defense returned in style, posting 16 blocks, and the Cardinals got some help from some of their servers; Rachel Savage ’17 and Claire Larson ’15 combined for nine aces. However, the overall service performance hurt the Cardinals, who had 11 service errors and in making those errors were unable to sustain any sort of offensive momentum.
Wesleyan did, however, pick up a bit of momentum back home on Tuesday Oct. 22, defeating Rhode Island College 3-0. The visitors never came close to the dominant Cards, who won 25-10, 25-16, 25-10.
Wesleyan jumped off to a fast start, winning 10 of the first 11 points to open the match. Kate Centofanti ’14 led the team with both a .600 hit percentage and 13 kills, while Farris and Monica Leslie ’14 added nine kills each.
Savage and Brenna Tharnstrom ’16 had team highs in digs and assists, respectively. Savage stopped nine of the low-hit shots, while Tharnstrom recorded 33 sets.
The conference losses place the Cardinals in dire straits; they are currently in a three-way tie for eighth place in the NESCAC, directly on the bubble of the eight-team NESCAC playoffs. In order to secure themselves a spot in NESCACs, the Cardinals will likely need to win one, if not both, of their upcoming NESCAC games: contests at home against Amherst on Friday, Nov. 1 and Williams on Saturday, Nov. 2.
These matchups may seem troubling, as Williams and Amherst have a combined 14-2 NESCAC record. Wesleyan has entered tough matches with confidence before, but this time they need to get results. Their postseason hopes depend on it.