Women’s volleyball had a strong showing this past weekend, winning three of their four matches in the annual MIT Invitational.
Coming off of Head Coach Gale Lackey’s 400th win on Sept. 19, the Cards shipped up to Boston on Friday, looking to improve on an already solid 7-3 record. The tournament started out on a disappointing but exciting note for Wesleyan, who was edged out by the struggling Smith College Pioneers.
The Cards jumped ahead early, winning the first set 25-20, but then split the following two with Smith, both of which had to be settled in a tiebreaker. Up 2-1, the team couldn’t hold on for the win, dropping two consecutive sets 23-25 and 12-15.
Drawing motivation from this defeat, the Cards elevated their game and did not look back, defeating Benedictine University 3-2 later that day in what can only be described as an old fashioned nail-biter. Despite playing without co-captain Lisa Drennan ’09, who sat out Friday’s second contest, the team once again jumped ahead early, cruising through the first two sets with relative ease. The Benedictine Eagles, however, regrouped and played two extremely strong sets to tie the contest at two. The fifth and final set went to a tiebreaker, but the Cards eventually emerged victorious. While Ruby Hernandez’s ’11 team-high 17 digs clipped the Eagles’ wings, Casey Reed ’12 was an offensive standout, leading the team with 11 kills. Reed’s high-school teammate and fellow Californian Ellie Healy ’10 was a rock as per usual, dishing out an impressive 38 assists.
The following day, Wesleyan had Endicott College to contend with. The Cards, lead by Drennan’s explosive performance, broke a game-long deadlock with an explosive fifth set, punishing the Gulls 15-6 for the victory. Wesleyan then returned for a second helping of Benedictine University, this time serving up an immaculate 3-0 victory to cap off their participation in the tournament. The Tufts Jumbos won the weekend overall; they currently rock a perfect 13-0 record for the season. While their early loss only enabled them to place 9th out of a possible 15 teams in the MIT Invitational, the three W’s earned by the volleyball team improves their record to a tasty 10-4.
“The MIT tournament was successful but could have been better,” Reed said. “I think the only team that I’ve seen that can beat us is our own. If we focus and are motivated to play up to our potential, we can beat any team.”
Next, the Cards continue their road trip with a match against Western Connecticut State University on Wednesday night.
Leave a Reply