Last weekend the Judges volleyball team participated in the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships hosted by New York University. In the first match the Judges were paired against top-seeded Emory, the second-ranked team in the country. Unsurprisingly, the Eagles rose above the Judges with set scores of 25-22, 25-18 and 25-11.
Leading the offensive charge were outside hitters Liz Hood ’15 and Si-Si Hensley ’14 with eight kills each. Unfortunately, the offensive charge sputtered as the rest of the team combined for four kills. On defense Elsie Bernaiche ’14 led the team with 13 digs. Setter Yael Einhorn ’14 led in assists with 19 during the match.
In the next match of the tournament the Judges faced host team NYU in a consolation match. The Judges were in it to the end during the first set with a losing score of 28-26, but NYU escaped with 25-19 and 25-14 victories in the final two sets.
In the first set the Judges started off behind, trailing by up to four points. After the score reached 13-9 against the Judges, they managed an impressive 7-1 run to take a two-point edge with the score at 16-14. Hood had two kills while Hensley had one over the stretch and Susan Sun ’14 capped the run with a service ace. After holding the lead with the score at 18-16, the Judges gave up five points. The Judges worked back to a tie with a kill by Hensley, a block assist with Becca Fischer ’13 and an ace by Vanessa Bodie ’15. After trading the lead, Brandeis took the go-ahead point on a kill by Lauren Berens ’13. NYU got away with the set after scoring two kills that included an attacking error by the Judges.
In the second set, the Judges took an early 7-3 lead. After extending the lead to 12-8, the NYU Violets went on a five-point spree to take a 13-12 lead. The teams traded no more than two points at a time until NYU managed another five-point run to take the set. The third set started with NYU taking an 8-4 lead, extending that to 13-7 and holding the lead from that point forward to clinch the match.
Hood led the team with nine kills and was followed closely behind by Hensley with eight. Fischer had four kills on offense and five blocks, including two solo blocks on defense. Bernaiche had 21 digs while Hensley added 11 and Einhorn managed 19 assists.
In their final match of the year, the Judges fought Carnegie Mellon for seventh place in the tournament. The Judges kept the scores close, with sets of 25-21, 25-23 and 25-20 but were unable to hold off the Tartans.
Once again Hood and Hensley led the team in kills, recording 10 each. Hood ended her season with 3.20 kills per set, seventh in the UAA and just barely behind NYU’s Sarah Buckingham for best among rookies. Hensley’s 2.24 kills per set put her at 18th in the UAA.
On defense Beraiache led the team with 14 digs. With an average 4.25 digs per set she earned the best record among rookies. Sun had 12 digs in her fifth match of the season with double digits. Additionally, Fischer earned four blocks including a solo block. Fischer now ranks ninth in the UAA with 0.78 blocks per set.
The Judges’ season ends with a 9-21 record including a 0-10 UAA record.
