Brandeis women’s volleyball had an eventful weekend, playing four games in two days as part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Invitational. Competition commenced on Friday, Sept. 9 and finalized the following day on Saturday, Sept. 10. The Brandeis women exited the tournament with one win to their three losses.
The first two games were played at home, with the Judges taking a win in their first game against Regis College in three sets. Brandeis has not seen Regis on the court since the MIT Invitational in the 2013 season, when the Judges pulled away with a three sets to zero win.
Brandeis led in kills against Regis on Friday, hitting 26 to Regis’s 18. Emma Bartlett ’20, Shea Decker-Jacoby ’19 and Zara Platt ’19 shared the lead with six kills, but Platt came out ahead in accuracy, only committing one error.
On defense, Yvette Cho ’19 and Grace Krumpack ’19 each made 13 digs off the opposing team’s serve.
The win would advance the team’s winning record to 3-1 for the season before they would come up short in their next game against Bowdoin College, who came in from Maine. Brandeis has also not faced off against Bowdoin since the last MIT Invitational the Judges attended in 2013.
Brandeis fell only shortly behind Bowdoin in kills for this game, committing 32 to the away team’s 36. Bartlett appeared more aggressive than in the first game of the day, boasting 22 total attacks and nine kills for the match.
The women returned to the volleyball court the next day at 1 p.m. at MIT against Tufts University, whose team collected an undefeated record of 3-0 before entering the court against Brandeis.
The Judges fell to Tufts after taking the first set against the opposing team, bringing the team to a total of four sets. Brandeis faced issues with accuracy and execution during this game. Though the women achieved 21 kills during the game, they committed 31 total errors, assigning the team a negative attacking percentage for the game. Tufts outhit Brandeis with 35 total kills, which were combatted by only 19 errors.
Despite the loss, the captain of the team, Cho, believes the team’s “first set against Tufts was single-handedly one of the best games we’ve played.”
After Tufts, the team played Endicott College, which resulted in another four-set loss for the Judges, who again took the first set off the team from Beverly, MA. Brandeis lagged behind in kills for the game, completing 28 compared to Endicott’s 38 kills. Decker-Jacoby led the girls in that game with seven total kills to only one error.
After going one for three over the weekend, Cho sees only opportunity in the outcome. “Even though the end result wasn’t what we wanted, we’re all proud of the way we performed and we’re going to build off of that,” she said.
The women played a regular season game again on Wednesday, Sept. 14, which resulted in a straight sets loss for the Judges. The team ends the week with a total record of three wins to five losses.
Brandeis women’s volleyball is scheduled to play their next game against Bates College on Friday, Sept. 16 at 7 p.m. The game will be played at home and will feature a rematch between the two teams who last faced each other in a tournament in the 2013 season, when Bates won the meeting in a tough five set game.
