Women's volleyball | Jumbos send seniors off in style with resounding win

    The final regular-season home game for senior co-captains Brogie Helgeson and Dena Feiger was business as usual for the women's volleyball team, which improved to 17-1 with a dominant three-set victory over NESCAC rival Bowdoin on Senior Day.
    Since Feiger and Helgeson came to Tufts as freshmen, the Jumbos have posted an impressive record of 88-26. And in the last two years, when the dynamic duo has been more prominently featured in the lineup, the team's record has been an even more impressive 43-5.
    "The team did a really great job of making Senior Night special for us," said Feiger, who last week became the second Tufts senior in a row to be named NESCAC Player of the Week. "After four years on the team, it was a great night … we got to play a NESCAC team in our house and beat them in three [sets] in our last regular-season match here at home."
    Bowdoin came into Wednesday's matchup riding a five-game winning streak, but the Polar Bears' defense struggled to contain the Jumbos' junior outside hitters Caitlin Updike and Dawson Joyce-Mendive, as they compiled 15 and 13 kills, respectively. Updike, who came into the match averaging just over three kills per set, averaged five kills per set in Wednesday's match. The Polar Bears, on the other hand, did not have one player who totaled more than six kills in the entire contest.
    Tufts' outside hitters did a solid job of getting around a stout Bowdoin front line, which features two players over six feet tall (the Jumbos, by comparison, have one). In Tufts' first matchup with Bowdoin in September, the Polar Bears had 9.5 team blocks. On Wednesday, that number was only four. The Tufts offensive attack stressed quickness and accomplished its goal with great efficiency, seemingly scoring at will all night.
    "When you have a big block, it is important for your offense to run quickly," coach Cora Thompson said. "If the set is high, the two blockers are going to be there waiting. You can't hit through [the Bowdoin block defense], they're a very strong team. For us the importance is to be quick with our ball control and make sure that we beat the block, and that's what Dawson and Updike were doing tonight."
    Wednesday's straight-set victory was the seventeenth consecutive win for the Jumbos following a season-opening loss to UMass Boston — the program's longest string of consecutive victories this decade. With the win, this year's Tufts squad surpassed the previous record of 16 straight victories which it had jointly held with the 2004 team that finished with a 28-6 record and made it to the finals of the NESCAC Tournament.
    Senior Night at Cousens Gymnasium featured one of the largest fan turnouts of the season, with approximately 150 fans in attendance cheering on Helgeson and Feiger in their final regular-season game in Medford. Among these fans was University President Lawrence Bacow, who said that he was enjoying his first time watching sports in the new Cousens Gym, which opened this fall.
    "This is actually the first time that there's been a home game when I haven't had a function," said President Bacow, who was in Detroit the day before and said that as soon as the game ended he had to head back home to pack for a trip to Chicago. "It's fun to be here, and this gym looks fabulous — I can't wait to see what it looks like with fans on all four sides!"
    The Jumbos finished with a perfect 10-0 record at home,and, after its latest victory over Bowdoin, the team improved its NESCAC record to 3-0.
    The next stage of the season, however, looks to be more challenging. The Jumbos will spend the rest of the year — the bulk of their NESCAC schedule — on the road, facing such stiff competition as Colby and Williams.
    "It's fun to have home games, but I think that now we've found our confidence [and] learned how to play with each other," Joyce-Mendive said. "It's good to take it on the road. We always want to win in our house, but now we can try to win in their house."
    Due to the competitiveness of the conference, Tufts will most likely need to run the gauntlet and go undefeated in the NESCAC in order to earn the right to host the postseason tournament at Cousens Gym in November. While the seniors were happy with their send-off Wednesday night, they plan to ensure that Wednesday's win will not be the last home victory of their Tufts careers.
    "We're so ready for NESCAC games to be coming up," Feiger said. "We'll be back. We're confident in that. This is not my last home game."