Women's volleyball ended the week on an uneven note after a loss to Bates on Wednesday and last weekend's mixed results at the Tufts University Tournament. The Polar Bears opened the tournament with a 3-1 fall to Connecticut College on Friday, but returned Saturday with a well-earned 3-2 victory over Wesleyan. These two games established their conference record as 1-1; with the non-conference face off against Bates, their total record now stands at 5-2.
Before the match against Bates, Bowdoin fully understood the challenges the Bobcats posed.
"Even though we've beaten Bates in the past, we have to take this game seriously," Jillian Berkman '12 said before the match. "Bates has been doing very well against other teams this year."
Keeping this in mind, the Bears started off strong with a 25-23 tally in the first set. However, Bates took the second at 22-25. The two teams volleyed back and forth with third and fourth sets of respective Bowdoin and Bates victories at 25-17 and 25-20, until Bates sealed its ultimate triumph in a fifth set of 15-7.
Throughout the game, Bowdoin continued this season's so-far strong offense. Kristin Hanczor '12 led with 14 kills, while Captain Gillian Page '10 and Melissa Haskell '13 came in at a close second with 12 kills apiece. Captain Jenna Diggs '10 posted a total of 44 assists.
Last weekend's matches at Tufts saw both greater success and greater defeat for the team. The Friday defeat against Connecticut College marked the team's first loss this season. It was also only their second game this year that did not go to five sets, as set scores of 16-25, 25-20, 15-25, and 19-25 established a 3-1 victory for the Camels.
Polar Bear statistics against Connecticut leaned more towards the defensive edge, with Page posting a team-high 17 digs to first year Melissa Haskell's nine. Stephanie Drumright '11 contributed six blocks. On the offense, Page and Hanczor added a respective 10 and eight kills off of 17 assists from Stephanie Bond '13.
Gina Lonati '12 said, "If anything, I think that game was a learning experience: it our first taste of conference competition and now we know what we're up against."
Greater success at Tufts for Bowdoin came in the form of Saturday's match against Wesleyan, with set scores of 22-25, 25-21, 25-20, 23-25, and 15-9. During the match, Haskell covered all her bases with 13 kills out of 28 attacks, two aces, and 12 digs. Hillary Cederna '13 notched 15 kills alongside her nine digs, while Victoria Edelman '13 contributed an additional nine kills. The offense was supported by setter Stephanie Bond '13, who achieved a career-high 48 assists over the course of the game.
"We had a lot of freshmen step up in the match," Berkman said. Berkman herself was also influential with a team-high 24 digs, while Hanczor posted 11 kills.
Lonati determined that the game against Wesleyan was a definite improvement from the one against Connecticut, although the team did miss some chances to put them away even more dramatically.
"We've learned that we have to start off strong and finish decisively to be successful," she said.