In its last tournament before the NESCAC championship, the volleyball team (13-14, 4-6 NESCAC) got one last good look at the conference competition at Bates this weekend. Despite winning the opener 3-1 against Bowdoin Friday night, the team dropped two out of three matches on the weekend.
“We were really ready to come to play against Bowdoin,” said Rebecca Rodger ’08. “We were a better team than they were. It was important that we were able to let go of our mistakes against Bowdoin. We had a positive mental attitude, we stayed together and worked well as a team.”
Despite the opening win, the volleyball team dropped its next two decisions at the hands of Bates and Colby, two middle-of-the-pack teams also looking to do some damage on Friday at the NESCAC championships. After taking the opening round against Bates by a score of 30-25, the Cards dropped their next six sets, as they were downed 3-1 by Bates and swept 3-0 by Colby.
“The team was not able to get into a consistent rhythm,” Rodger said. “Our communication was a little off, and we didn’t have the same attitude as before. We could have gotten a little cocky after Friday. We didn’t play up to our full potential [on Saturday].”
“Bates and Colby definitely challenged us,” Tory Molnar ’07 said. “But we just didn’t consistently play as well as we can.”
With the NESCAC championships coming up on Friday, the Cards will spend the week gearing up to take on some of the best competition they have faced all year. The Cardinals, currently in a three-way tie for sixth, will travel to Williams for the NESCAC championships, where they will play either Williams or Tufts, the two top seeds in the tournament. The Cards have not managed to win a game against either of the top two seeds this season.
Despite the regular season results, the volleyball team is confident that it has the talent to put up a good fight.
“It will be a great opportunity to play either Tufts or Williams,” Molnar said. “We were really off the last time we saw Tufts. So it’d be great to get another shot at them. And anytime you play Williams it’s a really fun, exciting game.”
Before Friday the Cards will look to make some adjustments as they prepare for either Tufts or Williams.
“This week, we are going to watch videos of our last few matches with Tufts and Williams to figure out what strategy we are going to use on Friday, how to beat them. We know we are able to win, and if we play our best, it will be one serious match out there. The last time we played Tufts, we were not up to our best potential. But if we show them who we really are, we can beat both Tufts and Williams,” Rodger said.
“I’m totally confident that if we play the way we know how, we could take Williams,” Molnar said. “And that would be an amazing game to play.”
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