After defeating a top-25 national team and then the top team in New England, the women's volleyball team came within one game of knocking off another top-25 team and winning the Tufts Invitational for the second time in a row.
But the Jumbos could not overcome No. 23 Eastern University, losing 3-2 in the tournament final after taking the first game from the Eagles.
One close loss did not overshadow a highly successful weekend. After opening up the tournament with a 3-0 victory over Emmanuel College, the Jumbos went on to defeat No. 22 SUNY Cortland 3-1 before defeating MIT, the top team in New England, 3-2.
"I expected to play well," coach Cora Thompson said. "Of course we want to win every game, but we had stacked our lineup. I scheduled us against the top four teams in the tournament, so to come out 3-1 is great."
The Jumbos came close to repeating as tournament champs after winning the first-ever Tufts Invitational last year. After a back-and-forth start in the first game against the favored Eagles on Saturday afternoon, the Jumbos went on a 7-1 run, led by four kills and an ace from junior Kelli Harrison, to pull out a 30-22 win.
The Jumbos could not capture the momentum with the win, however. After another tight start knotted the second game at 17, Eastern opened up with a decisive run, ripping off a 13-5 stretch to close the game. The Eagles carried their energy to game three, taking a 20-12 lead and fighting off a late Tufts run to win the game 30-24.
Tufts fought back, evening the match at two as freshman Caitlin Dealy and junior Dana Fleisher rallied the Jumbos from a 17-13 deficit to a 30-27 win.
After falling behind in the decisive fifth game, this time 8-3 on a hard spike that had freshman libero Natalie Goldstein clutching her right arm in pain, the Jumbos charged back again. A spike by Fleischer sliced the deficit to one, but the Eagles rattled off seven straight points to recapture the momentum, the game and the match. Eastern improved to 20-0 on the season, while the Jumbos slipped to 13-3.
"Coming that far and losing is always a disappointment," Harrison said. "But they're a good team and I thought we played some good volleyball against them."
The match was very heated as Eastern coach Mark Birtwistle ventured out several times onto the floor to argue a call. His senior setter Erin Meredith, who was named the tournament MVP, received a yellow card in the fourth game after disputing a call that put the Jumbos up 26-23.
The five-game match was the second of the day for the Jumbos. Earlier that day, the Jumbos defeated regional leader MIT 3-2.
After winning two 30-28 games, the Jumbos appeared to be in control of the match. However, they struggled in the next two matches as the Engineers won 30-15 and 30-21.
The Jumbos flipped the switch back on in the fifth game, winning 15-8. Sophomore Katie Wysham reentered the match after a two-game absence and recorded three kills, including the final two.
"That's one of the great things about this team," Harrison said, referring to the squad's two-game lapse against MIT. "We do have moments where we break down, but we're able to identify the problem and fix it."
The victory over the top team in the region should move Tufts up from its number five spot in New England.
While the Jumbos took aim on the regional rankings on Saturday, on Friday they set their sights on national power SUNY Cortland. Cortland certainly looked the part of its No. 22 ranking at the start of the match, running out to a 7-2 lead. While Tufts fought back to tie the game at 12, it could not overcome the strong Cortland block, and the Red Dragons took the game 30-25.
The Jumbos found themselves trailing again in game two, but a tap by Harrison gave Tufts a 19-18 lead that it would not relinquish, and the Jumbos reversed the 30-25 score from the previous match in their favor.
The match marked Harrison's return from a thigh injury sustained against Coast Guard in the MIT Invitational last weekend. Harrison was sharp in her return, at one point spiking a ball that bounced off an MIT player's head and went back over the net to the Tufts side. While Tufts lost the point, the play excited the home crowd.
"It was really great [to play again]," Harrison said. "I was a little shaky at first, but I was just so glad to get back out there. I missed a whole week so that was rough."
Coming off the 30-25 win, the Jumbos found themselves trailing 16-15 in the third game before sparking a 14-5 run to take the game and the lead in the match.
The momentum carried into the next game as a block by senior co-captain April Gerry made it 16-4. The Jumbos went on to win the game 30-17 and then gathered in a circle to chant "Jumbos" to the tune of the "Ol?©¦±uot; soccer anthem.
"To be able to beat a top-25 team is awesome," Thompson said. "To be able to do it in four games is even better."
The victory closed out a big day for the Jumbos that started with a 3-0 victory over Emmanuel. The Jumbos took the match easily, winning each game by at least eight points.
Freshman setter Kaitlin O'Reilly, last week's NESCAC Player of the Week, was named to an All-Tournament Team for the second week in a row.
