Volleyball suffers losing weekend

The regular season ended last weekend for the women's volleyball team with a disappointing performance in its third and final NESCAC weekend.

The Jumbos started off strong on Friday with a win over Bowdoin, but fell to both Colby and Bates on Saturday. The team now looks to prepare for its NESCAC quarterfinal match on Friday against Amherst.

Once again there was no real way to pinpoint what went wrong for the team on Saturday. While Bates was expected to be difficult competition -- at that point it was the second place team in the division and had lost only one official NESCAC game -- Tufts had already learned from first hand experience it was a beatable team. Earlier in October, as part of the Bates Invitational, the Jumbos dominated the Bobcats 3-1.

On Saturday however, the only thing that was the same about the match-up was the score. This time the Jumbos were on the losing end of a 3-1 decision (29-31, 20-30, 30-25, 28-30) in a game that this time counted towards the squad's official NESCAC record.

"We definitely could have beaten these teams," junior setter Rebecca Schaevitz said. "We had already beaten Bates, so it was kind of a shock that we lost."

And by the numbers, it is also difficult to determine why the team earned the loss instead of the win this time around. In terms of offensive kills, defensive digs, and aces, the numbers appear to even out for the team in both match ups. Enter the central core of volleyball where it is not the big plays and errors that sway the difference of a game, but rather the united movement of all six members on the court.

"If we could pinpoint specifically what was wrong then we could fix it," Schaevitz said. "It's more just getting back to basics and picking up the intensity."

However there were a few telltale signals in the statistics from the games that do show a decrease in focus that has hit this team late in the season. There has been an increase in service receive errors (three in the first Bates game versus six in the second) and blocks (ten versus three).

"We are going to work this week on boosting each individual's basic skills, especially serve receive, which was much better at the beginning of the season than it is now," Schaevitz said.

The second game on Saturday was once again a rematch for the Jumbos, this time with Colby. The Jumbos had already lost to this team at the end of September in the MIT Tournament. There was no avenging that loss for the Jumbos, as they succumbed once again in a 3-1 defeat (18-30, 28-30, 30-22. 24-30).

Schaevitz set the match and gave 45 assists, as well as contributing three service aces. Freshman outside hitter Kelli Harrison led the offense with 15 kills and contributed defensively along with junior outside hitter Emily Macy for 13 digs apiece.

While losing to the two more difficult teams of the weekend, the Jumbos were able to put away the team they should have beaten on Friday. Coming into the match, Bowdoin held the seventh place spot in the conference with a losing record of 3-5, and Tufts was able to dispose of the Polar Bears in three games (30-21, 30-18, 30-20).

Junior right side hitter Alison Sauer and sophomore middle hitter April Gerry earned a team high nine kills. Schaevitz once again stood out at the service line with two aces, and sophomore middle hitter Courtney Evans contributed two of her own as well.

The Jumbos must now concentrate this week on finding that spark that was able to give them the edge over the more difficult teams earlier in the season. By the numbers, this team has the talent, but it all needs to come together to outplay its postseason opponents.

"We came out flat," Schaevitz said. "We were not as intense as we could have been. But we know that and we know we can improve on that for this weekend."