Last Friday and Saturday, the Tufts volleyball team went up against Wesleyan and Colby in the semifinal and final matches to win their fourth NESCAC championship and first since 2022. The triumph also marked the first time since 2008 where a No. 4 seed has taken home the title.
“Our mindset all season has been to stay focused on bettering our game. We have embraced the competition on the other side of the net as the best way to do that. We didn’t come in thinking about our seed [number], we came into the weekend wanting to prove to ourselves that our hard work in practice was paying off,” head coach Cora Thompson wrote in an email to the Daily.
“We had more to prove to ourselves than to anyone else! I am so proud of our team for staying composed the entire weekend and staying gritty when pushed hard by 2 great teams! I was confident that we were prepared and that we matched up well with our competition and which ever team executed the best … would come away with the wins,” she wrote.
Tufts’ semifinal match on Friday came against NESCAC No. 1 seed Wesleyan, the hosts of the tournament. The Cardinals had been dominant all year with a 20–2 record entering the contest, but their only conference loss of the year had come against the Jumbos in October.
The match’s initial set didn’t look good for the underdog Jumbos, with Wesleyan jumping off to an early lead after a decisive 25–14 victory. Tufts struck back in the second set, however, with a finishing 4–0 run capping off a 25–19 win.
“There was a bit of mental hesitancy in that first set as we were playing - kind of waiting to see what Wesleyan would bring to the table. The shift that happened was a team huddle where they were reminded that we don’t wait and see what others do,” Thompson wrote. “We do what we KNOW we can do. If we simply play our game, we knew we would get the result we want and shifted back into our aggressive mindset. The rest was history.”
It looked like the two teams would continue trading off sets, with the Cardinals’ strong play returning in the third set to take a 13–10 lead. However, sophomore opposite hitter Maiwenn Kamdje’s two kills and a block spurred 5 straight Jumbo points. She would finish with 15 kills on 34 attempts, continuing her streak of five games with at least 10 kills and proving instrumental yet again in a Tufts defeat of Wesleyan, with her two top hitting matches of the season being both games against the Cardinals.
The Cardinals came right back later in the third set to take a late 20–18 lead, but yet again the Jumbos responded with 5 points in a row to regain the advantage. The run was highlighted by senior middle hitter Julia Griffiths’ magnificent defensive play at the net. Wesleyan once again came back and cut the Jumbo lead to 24–23, but a kill from junior outside hitter Claire Castor ended the set and gave Tufts a critical 2–1 lead.
The fourth set was similarly close, with the Jumbos’ late execution proving to be superior. Wesleyan’s 3–0 run gave them a tight 19–17 lead late in the set, but Tufts responded yet again with a 5–1 rally to regain a 22–20 advantage. Then, sophomore outside hitter Keller Mobley came in clutch with two kills to send the Jumbos into the championship match, their 13th appearance in program history. Mobley finished with five kills and four digs.
Overall, the Jumbos succeeded in terminating points, which also proved crucial in their earlier matchup with the Cardinals. Tufts had 59 kills and hit .211 for the match, with an impressive .306 mark in the second frame. Three players finished with double digit kills, led by Kamdje. Junior outside hitter Akpevwe Akpoigbe hit .391 with 13 terminations, and junior setter Rianna Liu finished with 30 assists, four aces and six digs. Castor had 11 kills and added two service aces and four digs, and junior opposite hitter Emma Heckman tallied six kills with three digs and two assisted blocks. Griffiths posted six kills and five assisted blocks. Sophomore setter Ellery Clark recorded her first double-double with 19 assists and 10 digs, while adding two aces. Sophomore libero Matsa Shi also posted 17 digs.
Tufts then moved on to the championship match against Colby, seeking revenge for its October loss.
“We have been working hard to improve our overall game these past 3 weeks and our practices were very intentional as we focused on certain skill sets. Honestly, we didn’t really execute well at all the last time we saw Colby and that gave us the confidence going into this match that if we all did our jobs just a little bit better … we would be happy with the outcome.” Thompson wrote. “So, yes our skill sets improved, but also our mindset. In that championship game, we weren’t thinking about our past with them at all…we were just so dialed into the present moment as we worked to prove to ourselves that were were better servers, passers, defenders and attackers than we were 3 weeks ago.”
Like the semifinal match, the Jumbos won three sets to one for the Mules. Colby posted two more kills overall, but were forced into 28 hitting errors by Tufts to mark their defeat.
Tufts started off extremely strong, taking an early 19–11 lead in the first set. While the Mules would fight back, the deficit proved too large and the Jumbos jumped off to a 1–0 lead with a 25–20 victory in the frame, marked by a stellar .429 hitting percentage. Akpoigbe and Heckman each came through with four kills while hitting .800 to lead the Jumbos through the period.
Colby immediately struck back with a dominant 25–18 second set to tie up the match. The Cardinals had just two hitting errors and hit .320 in their best offensive set of the match. The third set would be a culmination of the first two, with both teams looking equally matched and trading leads back and forth. In an 18–18 game, Castor capped off a 5–1 Jumbo run with an ace, and Kamdje put the finishing touches on the set with two closing kills.
In the fourth set, it looked like Colby was off to another decisive responding victory, after starting off with a 5–0 lead. A commanding 9–1 rally for the Jumbos would put them back on top, but the Mules responded yet again with a dominant 8–1 run of their own to make the score 19–16. Tufts tied it back up after a service error and back-to-back aces, and then rattled off 5 straight points after Colby briefly took the lead back to take home the championship.
The Jumbos hit .225 for the match overall, topping Colby’s .160. Kamdje had another stellar outing with a match-high 14 kills, also adding two blocks. Akpoigbe posted nine kills and .273 hitting, one of her best performances when the team needed it most. Castor led all players with four service aces and also had five digs and 11 kills. Heckman had six finishes, while senior outside hitter Emma Norman tallied five kills. Liu had another double-double with 23 assists and 10 digs, her ninth of the year. Clark also had 19 assists with four digs, and Shi led the team with 13 digs. Griffiths added four kills and four rejections.
With the win, Tufts earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, where it will face off against Bridgewater State in Medford on Thursday.
“This team is excited for what is ahead this week, but more than anything they are still humble and very hungry. They feel like they have so much more room for growth and they are being very mindful about staying present and seeing our next match for what it really is…an opportunity to get better at the sport we all love,” Thompson wrote.
