After the best regular season in three years, the women's volleyball team ended its postseason run earlier than it hoped, with a disappointing performance at the 2001 NESCAC Volleyball Championships at Middlebury.
At Friday's 3-2 loss to Bates, senior co-captains Jessica Stewart and Megan Pitcavage both donned Jumbo uniforms for the last time.
The evening began auspiciously, as the squad came out strong to win the first two games against the Bobcats, 32-30 and 30-27, respectively. But the Jumbos lost game three, handing the Bobcats a 34-32 win, and followed it up with another loss in game four, 30-25. Tufts pulled together early in game five, taking a 9-6 lead, but couldn't finish it and walked away with a 15-11 loss.
"We were not able to get it done," coach Kris Talon said. "We were not able to establish strong middle hitting, which was our game plan going into the match. Bates was a team that relied on its two best players and the other four were just there for support, whereas we have every player contributing in the match."
Besides a weaker showing in the hitting, the team's serving was also subpar. Tufts compiled 12 service errors between three of the team's best players, with Stewart, sophomore Amy Cronin, and junior Paulette Pacheco recording four errors apiece. The fundamentals seemed to escape the Jumbos, who recorded five passing errors.
"This was a really disappointing way to end the season," freshman Carie Fowler said. "We had it and didn't want it enough."
It was not a fitting end for a successful season. The Jumbos began the 2001 season undefeated after their opening invitational and seemed to improve each game, pulling together under the leadership of Stewart and Pitcavage. "This year was the best year of my varsity volleyball career at Tufts," Pitcavage said. "Jess and I really gave it all we had and took it for the ride."
Stewart and Pitcavage showed improvement from the previous seasons. Stewart's attacking percentage rose nearly 20 points from .224 to .241, while she pounded an impressive 447 kills and committed only 168 errors.
"We accomplished a lot," Stewart said. "We came together and really clicked both on and off the court.
"Talon was a good coach. I developed a friendship with her that I hadn't developed with any other coach. She wanted us to always improve on our skills as players. She cared about us outside of volleyball."
In numerous invitationals, the squad was placed into the Championship bracket, which means the team had the talent to compete with the best teams in the tournament. During a regular season match, Tufts defeated eventual NESCAC Champion Williams.
"It was a great season," freshman Emily Macy said. "It was a good learning experience. I learned a lot from Jess about how to be a better player."
Talon coached a young team this year, with only two seniors playing full time, one junior that played half the time, and a squad largely comprised of freshman and sophomores. "It will be difficult to replace Jess [Stewart]," Talon said. "She is one of the best players in the league, but we do have a great group of kids here. They work hard and enjoy it."
