All good things must come to an end. After all, the Roman Empire fell, the Beatles broke up, Clarence Thomas replaced Thurgood Marshall and the Brandeis volleyball team saw their five game winning streak come to its conclusion, bowing to undefeated Tufts 1-3.
“I think we had a lot of energy in the beginning and I think it kind of taperd off towards the end which harmed us in the long run,” tri-captain Piera Carfagno ‘10 explained.
“But I think that we have a better idea of what we need to work on for this weekend against Amherst.”
The Judges climbed to a one point deficit in the first set and two points in the second but the Jumbos overtook them in both, 22-25, 21-25.
Brandeis came out strong in the third set building up a 20-12 but eight errors in the third set saw that lead evaporate and require extra time before the Judges finally came out the better 29-27. The final set entered into a 23-23 deadlock but Tufts scored the last two points to take the set and the match 25-23.
Paige Blasco ’11 led the Judges offense with 12 kills and provided help on defense with 15 digs while Lorraine Wingenbach ’09 and Bridget McAllister ’10 each had 9 kills. Abby Blasco ’11 secured the defense with 24 digs to go along with 32 assists while libero Violette Ruggiero ’09 had 16 digs for the match.
The Jumbos attack was spearheaded by Dawson Joyce-Mendive who had a match high 17 kills. Caitlin Updike had eight kills while playing only two sets and Dana Feiger had 42 assists. Feiger along with Natalie Goldstein had a match high 23 digs.
Errors proved to be the tipping stat between the two squads; the Judges had 26 errors to the Jumbos 23 and quadrupled Tufts on service errors 12-4.
The loss comes five days after the Judges picked up their fifth straight victory, sweeping aside visiting Endicott 3-0 back on September 18 at Red Auerbach Arena. Wingenbach and Paige Blasco each had double-doubles in the winning effort – Wingenbach picking up 10 kills and 13 digs while Blasco had 14 kills and 10 digs.
The Judges face a tough challenge starting today and tomorrow as they head off to Amherst for the Amherst Invitational. Out of action will be Abby Blasco who has been dealing with injuries throughout the season and the team will look to preserve her for the UAA’s. With Blasco likely out, Ruggiero will shift to setter – a position she held until sophomore year and Lauren Polinsky ’10 will fulfill libero duties.
“It’ll be a tough game,” Carfagno stated about Amherst, “we did well against them last year and it’ll definitely be a challenge, especially with Vi (Ruggiero) setting just because it’s such a short time between now and then to make the adjustment.”
A tough loss against a tough opponent and things don’t get any easier for this squad, how they come out of Amherst could be key in determining how they will fare in the first UAA round robins come October 4-5.
