The Cardinals volleyball season ended Friday night against the Colby Mules in the quarterfinals at Williams College. The Cardinals ended their season at 18-12 overall (5-5 NESCAC). The Cardinals rank sixth in NESCAC. This weekend was the last for Cardinals Quad-Captains Melissa DeCew ’04, Marielle Lesnivich ’04, Jocelyn Moore ’04 and Katie Porter ’04.
The Williams College Ephs took the NESCAC title for the third year in a row with a 12-0 record in NESCAC, 33-3 overall.
“It was very frustrating to lose to Colby on Friday night, but at the same time, it’s great to think about how hard we fought for every point and how much fun parts of the game were. Now we have even more reason to come out strong against Colby next year,” said Katie Annand ’05.
The Cardinals and the Mules were two of the most evenly matched teams in NESCAC. With close statistics in nearly all NESCAC categories, Friday night’s game all depended on who would fight the hardest. The Cardinals took the Mules to the ropes, taking the game to five sets, winning the second and fourth ones. The Cardinals had an early lead in the fifth set, but could not hold on. They dropped three sets to the Mules, losing 34-36, 30-28, 19-30, 30-23, 12-15.
“Wes is very similar to us, especially in serving. It was a good match-up for both teams. We had a lot of long, good rallies in this game, but we also had a lot of service errors for both teams [we had 37]. We always have battles against them, we took it to five [sets] earlier this year, last year and I think the year before,” said Colby Head Coach Candice Parent.
“It was anybody’s game on Friday night. We fought hard, Colby fought hard and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. We kept Colby in that gym for two and a half hours refusing to let them leave without a fight,” said Erin Reding ’06, “Even though in the end we lost, I’m glad we left our mark. Losing is never an easy thing to handle in any situation but the fact that we were all able to look each other in the eyes and say ‘yes, I gave it everything I’ve got” is all I could ask for.’“
The Cardinals’ played with their usual determination and teamwork. Tory Molnar ’07 recorded 22 digs with Rebecca Mintz ’05 bringing in 20 of her own. Annand added 52 more set assists to her season total, bringing it to1208 for the season. Carey Myslewski led the team in kills with 13, followed by Reding with eleven, and Marielle Lesnevich ’04 and Mintz each with ten. Mintz also had two blocks along with Tiffany Bryan ’06.
The season was one with many highlights for the Cardinals They finished the season third in assists with 1208, recording 12.33 a game. Setter Katie Annand ’05 finishes the season on top of the NESCAC assists board with 1067 assists, recording 11.47 a game. They also finished third in kills with nearly fourteen a game and second in service aces with 2.95 a game. Erin Reding ’06 finished third in NESCAC service aces statistics with 70 this season.
”It has been my greatest pleasure and honor to work with this team. I have been on many sports teams throughout my life but this one is by far the most memorable,“ Reding said. ”The dedication and heart that every player puts forth in all that we do is a consistent inspiration to me.“
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