Although the volleyball team left their Saturday round robin at the US Coast Guard Academy in New London with one victory and one loss, it was certainly an encouraging couple of matches for the Cardinals. The ladies were able to defeat an 18-6 Roger Williams University team, and also take a game from Coast Guard Academy.
The Cardinals began their day bright and early with a 9 a.m. match against the US Coast Guard Academy Bears. Coast Guard came into the match 18-3 with a ten-game winning streak. The Bears are arguably one of the strongest Division III volleyball squad and are ranked fourth in New England. Familiar with the strength of their opponent, the lady Cards knew they were in for an intense match.
“They are one of the best teams we’ve seen and we have a lot of respect for them. We were all really excited and saw the match as a great opportunity to pick up our game,” said Allison Heaney ’09, an outside hitter.
After a rough first set in which Coast Guard easily defeated the Cardinals 30-14, the Cards pulled it together.
“After the first game we knew we could play better and we were glad to have that game out of our systems,” said Samantha Sherman ’09.
Following that shaky first game, the Cardinals actually took the next game from their hosts, 30-26. Although Wesleyan could not pull out the match, losing the next two games to the Bears 30-23 and 30-21, the Cardinals still fought valiantly the entire way.
“The difference between the first game and the rest of the match was that in the final three games we (the Cardinal squad) were energized, enjoyed ourselves and played with enthusiasm,” Heaney said.
After a ten-minute break, the Cardinals continued their day with a match against the Roger Williams University Hawks. The Roger Williams women had come into the match riding a 13-game win streak, and were looking to continue their success against the Cardinals. At first it seemed that the Wesleyan ladies were going to be the Hawk’s next victim. The Cardinals again came into their match sluggish and lost the first game 30-24. At that point, however, the Cardinals regrouped.
“We just went back to what we knew we had to do,” Sherman said. “We stopped going through the motions and started getting back into the swing of things.”
After refocusing, the Cardinals took their play to another level and won the final three games easily (30-18, 30-15, 30-21).
Indeed, all of the Cardinals played solidly, but Wesleyan’s star of the weekend was undoubtedly Erin Reding ’06. In this weekend’s two matches, she recorded ten blocks in eight games, for an average of 1.25 blocks per game. This is a rate very similar to her season average of 1.26 blocks per game, which along with her NESCAC-leading 115 blocks makes her a force in shot blocking in the realm of New England Division III volleyball. This weekend, Reding increased her block total to 406 for her college career, leaving her four short of Wesleyan’s number two spot all-time in this statistic, Alexis Keeler ’01.
Reding has two more regular season games to close in on Keeler, both home matches this weekend against Amherst (Friday at 8:00 p.m.) and Tufts (Saturday at noon), before the Cards begin their conference tournament.
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