The volleyball team faced tough competitors last week and now stand at 14-7 after the weekend's matches. Exhibiting only mediocre performances, the Jumbos won two out of its three NESCAC matches and two of four overall. With 13 more games to play, the squad is ranked sixth in New England and third in NESCAC behind Amherst and Wesleyan.
The Jumbos began the weekend on a dismal note, dropping three sets to Wellesley on Thursday - their first home loss in almost a full year.
"We wanted to go undefeated at home this year," Coach Kris Talon said. "But unfortunately with [this] loss that won't happen. Wellesley was a good team. They went to their outsides and they also had a big middle hitter."
With sophomore Lindsay Moses still struggling with her setting, Coach Talon allowed freshman Rebecca Schaevitz to set the entire match. Although setting is not the team's strong suit, it manages to compensate through its offense defense. Senior co-captain Jess Stewart was again leader of the court, with 12 kills and 13 digs. Sophomore Amy Cronin led the team in blocks with two as well as an attacking percentage of .636. Cronin, who nailed seven kills, did so without causing a single attacking error, which marked her first flawless attacking game of the season.
The Jumbos rebounded against Bowdoin on Friday, winning its first match against the Polar Bears (3-0) and beating the home team (28-30, 21-30, 17-30). Bowdoin was a powerless competitor against the Jumbos, posting only a 6-13 record.
"They were a weak team," Coach Talon said. "They won't even make the NESCAC championship. This gave us a chance to allow everyone to play. We were mixing and matching the line-up."
Stewart, who is ranked second in the NESCAC for overall kills and seventh for kills per game, led the Tufts offense with 10 kills. The match's defense, however, was led by freshman Emily Macy who dominated the defense with nine digs. Macy is also in ranked among the top ten of NESCAC - second in total digs and eighth in digs per game.
The team's turnaround play continued into Saturday with a tough win against Bates, who entering the match was ranked seventh in New England. Tufts defeated Bates in five tough games (30-19, 21-30, 30-21, 27-30, 15-10). The first three games were blowouts and Tufts could have won it in four, but unfortunately, the Jumbos allowed the Bobcats to close in and take the game, which forced the teams into that fifth game. In outside hitting, Stewart averaged 4.4 kills per game with a .380 hitting percentage and led the team with 22 kills and 18 digs.
"We were really talking on the court," freshman Carie Fowler said. "Our energy was up and focused. We played our game. Jess [Stewart] had an amazing amount of kills. Jess and [Emily] Macy were really key hitters in our win."
The Jumbos strong performance had withered away by Saturday evening, as they lost five matches to Colby. The Brown and Blue were not on the winning side of match and took the loss (30-26, 15-30, 23-30, 30-25, 9-15).
"This match was similar to Bowdoin," Coach Talon said. "We had a huge lead in game one and we choked it away. We are playing better as a team, but if we want to win we cannot have Jess [Stewart] making ten hitting errors."
Setter Moses uttered the same feeling as Coach Talon. "[We] didn't get it done," Moses said. "We had the game and we didn't follow through."
The duo of Stewart and Macy combined again in the match combining for 37 of the teams 60 kills and also 35 percent of the team's digs. One or two players, however, did not dominate the defense. The squad had six members tallying over 12 digs in the match.
Tonight, at 7 p.m. the Jumbos travel to take on Clark, a non-NESCAC competitor, and looks for a chance to improve on their play.
