The weekend looked to be another great one for the women’s tennis team. Before any matches on Saturday the team had a four-game winning streak that included three shutouts. After a win against Emmanuel College, the Judges ended the day on the wrong side of a 3-2 match against Colby-Sawyer College. The Judges’ slide continued Tuesday with a loss to Tufts for their first home loss of the year and first shutout loss since Sept. 7.
Saturday started well with their match against Emmanuel College, 3-1. The Judges started off strong with scores of 25-9 and 25-15 in the first two sets. Set three did not go as well for the Judges, with Emmanuel taking the set 25-14, but the final set was a close win for the Judges, 25-23 to take the match.
During the match many of the Judges earned impressive stats. Outside hitter Liz Hood ’15 had 18 kills as well as three aces and six digs. Setter Yael Einhorn ’14 had 33 assists along with four kills and six digs. Outside hitter Susan Sun ’13 added to the offense with seven aces. Defensively, libero Elsie Bernaiche ’15 led the team with 23 digs.
The second match began positively with a 25-17 Judges win in the first set. The second set ended with a 26-24 loss for the Judges, but they bounced back for a 25-22 win in the third. Colby-Sawyer took the match away with a 25-17 win in the fourth set, and a 16-14 win in the fifth and final set for a match score of 3-2 for Colby-Sawyer.
In the afternoon match Hood achieved a double-double with 16 kills and 12 digs. Outside Hitter Si-Si Hensley ’14 also had a double-double with 14 kills and 13 digs. Einhorn had an impressive 44 assists to go along with 11 digs, while Bernaiche led in defense with 24 digs during the match for just under a third of the Judges’ combined total digs.
While the loss to Colby-Sawyer was very close, going to a fifth set, Tuesday’s match against Tufts was a different story. Tufts showed the Judges why they were unbeaten when they handed Brandeis its first home loss of the season.
Tufts started off strongly with an early 12-4 lead in the first set after going on a 7-0 run to tear open the lead. When they were down 16-7, the Judges made a good attempt at catching up with a 4-0 run involving two Tufts errors and two kills by Hood. After a quick time out, the Judges momentum slipped as Tufts went on a 9-1 run to end the set.
The second set was much closer with an early 3-1 Judges lead. Tufts was able to tie the game on the way to an 11-7 lead. The Judges went on many runs to cut the lead, but Tufts kept trying to pull away, never getting more than a four-point lead. After a 4-1 set, including a kill by Einhorn, the score was 19-18. Tufts pulled away, thanks to a couple of Brandeis errors, to win the set.
In the third set Tufts took an early 7-4 lead facing tough opposition from the Judges. Brandeis took a 9-8 lead off of a kill by blocker Becca Fischer ’13. Tufts responded with a three-point run. Later in the match, down 19-15, Fischer managed another three kills and, along with an ace by Sun, tied the game. Tufts closed the game on a 6-1 run, thanks in part to an error against the Judges.
For the match, Hood led the team with 10 kills, followed by Fischer with nine. Einhorn had 29 assists and 11 digs, resulting in a double-double. Bernaiche had the team-best with 12 digs.
The Judges next face Amherst at the Amherst Classic tonight at 7 p.m.
