The club volleyball team concluded its season on Sunday, when the coed Cardinals played host to Brown and the University of Hartford in matches at the Alumni Field House. The team came out a little sloppy in the first match against Brown, dropping consecutive games 25-17 and 25-18. The squad regrouped during a one game break, and came out strong to defeat Hartford two games to one.
The two losses to Brown looked eerily similar. The Cardinals played well enough to stay in both matches, but could not handle late runs by the Bears. In the first game Brown scored eight of the final ten points to put the Cards away. Despite fiery hot managing from Jocelyn Moore ’04, the team’s defensive mistakes coupled with Brown’s jump serve allowed the Bears to pull away in another strongly contested match.
The team knew opportunity had slipped away, but got a chance to redeem itself an hour later.
The first game saw Hartford jump to a 13-8 lead, but the Cardinals battled back with the help of some pathetic Hartford serving to tie the match at fifteen. Mark McKay ’05 and Damon Jenkins ’05 sparked the run with big kills, while Marcus Bach-Armas ’05 controlled the match by serving well. McKay lead the Cardinals in the match against Hartford with thirteen kills, while Jenkins added six and Andy Magarie ’06 chipped in with five. The game remained tight until 23-23, when defensive errors by Wes let the game slip away 25-23.
McKay seemed to take personal offense to the team’s third loss of the day, and he came out hammering the ball as the second game against Hartford got under way. Hartford hung around, as no team led by more than two until the Cardinals went up 18-15. Strong serving from Deanne Dworski-Riggs ’07 allowed the team to easily finish the match, winning 25-16.
The split of the first game set up a deciding third match between the squads, with the winner only needing fifteen points. Again the teams battled evenly for a while, though Wes held the lead for the majority of the game. A big Hartford kill cut the team’s lead to one point at 14-13. With the match on the line, Hartford could not step up under the pressure, as they blew the advantage of controlling the serve, not to mention the game, by failing to put the ball in play. Since the club teams play rally scoring, this ended the game at 15-13 in favor of the Cards. The team was excited to come back and win the Hartford match after a frustrating Brown loss.
“Our back row finally passed well, which the coaches have been really stressing. Passing allows for everything else to go well, and our hitters put away chances when we got them,” said Jenkins.
Setter Bach-Armas certainly took advantage of the improved passing in collecting team-high seventeen assists in the match against Hartford. He credited an inspired team effort for the victory.
“We had a tough match against Brown, but afterwards Andy Magarie gave a motivational speech,” said Bach-Armas. “Everyone brought all their balls out to the court in the second match. We ended our season on a great note.”
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