The volleyball team could not have finished the season with a better run.
In the final weekend of the regular season, the Jumbos took care of conference foes Bowdoin and Colby over the weekend, giving them six consecutive wins over NESCAC teams heading into the postseason. Thanks to the late run, Tufts, which started out 1-3 in conference play, finished the season with an 18-12 overall record and 7-3 in the NESCAC, earning a No. 3 seed in next weekend's NESCAC Tournament.
"These were huge wins for us to finish off the season," senior captain Katie Wysham said. "[The regular season] was a big success. We ended on a positive note by winning this weekend and have continued to get better as the season's gone on."
New England powerhouse MIT has been the only team to beat Tufts since Oct. 7, when the team dropped a four-game decision to Middlebury. Since their loss to the Panthers, the Jumbos have moved from a seventh-place tie in the league to third. After the early-October loss, coach Marritt Cafarchia said that the team would reassess its game plan by changing to a new formation using only one setter and a smaller rotation. The results have been evident.
"We're going to stick with what works," Cafarchia said. "We're playing different teams with different strengths, so we might make some minor changes, but we've been playing great lately."
On Saturday, the Jumbos concluded their regular season with a four-game win over the Colby Mules. Tufts took the first game by a score of 30-15, but dropped the second 30-27 to even up the match. It was the first time the Jumbos had dropped a game to a NESCAC opponent since Oct. 7 against Middlebury, a streak spanning 16 games.
"We just basically started out tired," Wysham said. "It wasn't apparent in the first game because they made mistakes. But in the second they came back and played well, so we turned on our game and played with more energy."
The increased effort showed in the results as Tufts took the final two games 30-20 and 30-23.
"We played at our tempo," Cafarchia said. "We've just played at a good rhythm and controlled the tempo."
Wysham was her usual force at the net with nine kills and eight total blocks. Juniors Natalie Goldstein and Stacy Filocco and freshman Caitlin Updike all contributed with 22 digs apiece. Filocco and Updike created a fine hitting tandem, tallying 15 and 12 kills, respectively, to push them both over 200 kills on the season.
"Stacy had a great weekend," Cafarchia said. "[Junior] Kate Denniston also had a lot of kills and no errors. She was coming through in clutch situations.
The loss dropped Colby to 2-8 in the NESCAC, denying the Mules, the 2005 conference champions, a spot in the tournament for the second straight season.
Tufts started its weekend on Friday with a straight-game win over Bowdoin, 30-15, 30-25 and 30-21.
Filocco and Updike again played well on offense and defense. Filocco finished with 12 kills and 13 digs while Updike had 10 kills and 12 digs. Sophomore setter Dena Feiger continued her strong all-around play, recording 33 assists, five kills and two service aces in the three games.
After the loss to the Jumbos, Bowdoin fell to 2-7 in the NESCAC, but the following day the Polar Bears had Tufts to thank. Tufts' win over Colby allowed Bowdoin to clinch the eighth seed in the NESCAC Tournament.
Only Williams and Amherst finished above the Jumbos in the NESCAC regular season standings. Both teams shut out Tufts during two different stretches in which the Jumbos lost four out of five matches. Now, the Jumbos are playing their best volleyball of the season and enter the conference tournament as arguably the league's hottest team.
"We're confident seeing anyone we play," Wysham said. "We feel we have the skill to beat anyone."
Tufts will kick off the NESCAC Tournament on Friday, when it takes on sixth-seeded Trinity at Amherst, which is hosting the championships after finishing with the top NESCAC mark in the regular season. In their only head-to-head matchup of the regular season, which took place on Oct. 12, Tufts scored a 3-0 win over the Bantams.
"It feels good to get to continue playing, but we still have a lot of work to do before the match," Cafarchia said. "I'm excited that we get the opportunity to show everybody how much we've improved as a team. This is definitely the best we've played all year."
