The volleyball team has been dealing with adversity since early August, when the team was forced to overcome a season−ending injury to senior−quad captain Dawson Joyce−Mendive.
This weekend, the team's quest to host its third consecutive NESCAC tournament hit another major roadblock when it dropped matches to Amherst and Middlebury and lost its most productive hitter — senior quad−captain Caitlin Updike — to an ankle injury.
"We struggled with our mental game a little bit, and our passing was not as dependable as it normally is," senior quad−captain Nancy Shrodes said. "There were way too many errors on our side."
The Jumbos were looking to rebound from their Friday defeat against Amherst on Saturday against the host Panthers, who entered the match with an untarnished NESCAC record. But after the Jumbos took the first set 25−17, an injury to Updike forced them to adjust its offense on the fly.
"I went up for a far outside hit, and when I came down, half my foot was on the ground and half was on the [net post] pole," Updike, who had nine kills in her limited action in the contest, said. "I tried to come back into the match in the third [set] a few times, but it just wasn't working."
With its two top killers from 2009 now nursing injuries on the bench, coach Cora Thompson was forced to mix up her lineups. First−year Michaela Sinrod was brought in as a second setter, giving sophomore Kendall Lord more opportunities to use her tall frame as a hitter. Shrodes and junior Cara Spieler shouldered most of the offensive load with 10 kills apiece, while junior libero Audrey Kuan, who is an online editor for the Daily, added 11 digs.
Though the Jumbos forced nail−biting third and fourth sets, Middlebury prevailed on its Parents Weekend match, launching itself into first place in the NESCAC with a 5−0 conference record.
"It's unnerving when any teammate gets injured, but we have a deep bench, and we switch up the lineups all the time in practice," Shrodes said. "We definitely fought and battled, but at the end it just didn't come to fruition."
On Friday, in their sixth straight road match, the Jumbos fell to the Lord Jeffs in four sets. Tufts' offense could never get in sync against an Amherst team that combined for 119 digs, with five different players in double−digits in the category.
"Our passing and serving really broke down," Updike said. "We weren't able to get the ball to our middles and run our offense. They are a strong defensive team, but we gave them way too many free points."
With the two losses, Tufts falls into a tie with Bowdoin for fourth place in the NESCAC at 5−2. The Jumbos will get a chance to jump ahead of the Polar Bears in a road matchup in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday night.
Updike, who yesterday said that she was using supportive crutches, hopes to be back by that match, but her status for Wednesday hinges on an evaluation today by the athletic training staff. Even if Updike is not able to contribute on the court against Bowdoin, she is confident that her teammates are mentally strong enough to succeed in her absence.
"They'll figure it out," Updike said. "We do have a deep bench, and everyone will have to show up and step up. It's doable; even if I can't play, we're a good enough team that we can still do well."
The Jumbos now have two days of practice to come up with a new winning strategy if their star hitter is ultimately unable to play. Being in one of the most competitive Div. III conferences in the country, they cannot afford to do anything less.
"It'll be really helpful to have the extra practice days to approach maybe not having Caitlin in the equation," Shrodes said. "At Middlebury, we had to deal with all of the panic and emotion. Now we mentally prepare ourselves."
