The Brandeis women’s volleyball team started off their season on Friday, Sept. 1 with a sweep of Wellesley College and Smith College in the Brandeis Invitational. Brandeis began their season with a 3-1 victory over Wellesley and then moved on to crush Smith 3-0. In the final game of the day, Brandeis fell to a 2-1 record via a 1-3 loss at the hands of Franklin College.
In the first game against Wellesley, the Judges took the first sets, winning 25-17 and 25-15, before falling short in the third set 28-26. They secured their win in the fourth set of the match with a comfortable margin of 25-19. Rookie Clare Meyers ’21 led the way for the Judges with 12 kills in her first collegiate appearance. The Brandeis Hoot’s Shea Decker-Jacoby ’19 also provided a strong performance for the Judges as well with 10 kills. The Judges hit .164 overall in the match against Wellesley. Marlee Nork ’19 and rookie Marissa Borgert ’21 split time setting, offering nearly equal performances with 22 and 23 assists. Decker-Jacoby contributed defensively as well with 11 digs, while Captain Yvette Cho ’19 was the team leader with 24 digs for the team. Meyers delivered 15 digs, Nork earned 13 digs for the Judges and Borgert contributed 12 digs.
The second game for the Judges on Friday was a clean sweep of Smith with a three-set match, winning 25-10, 25-16, 25-18. The Judges proved to have a deep bench with entirely different standouts in the second game of the day. Leah Pearlman ’19 and rookie Megan Osorio Moran ’21 split setting duties, with Pearlman producing 16 assists and Osorio Moran ’21 supplying 10 assists. Emma Bartlett ‘20 was the major offensive force for the Judges, with a game-high 9 kills. The Judges produced a team hitting percentage of .223. The Judges proved a force on defense as well with 8 blocks and 47 digs in the match. Cho earned 17 digs for the Judges, while Moran and Pearlman contributed 10 digs each.
Decker-Jacoby commented on the wins Friday, saying “We came into the game with a winning mentality and that translated into beating a team we have struggled against the past two years.”
The Judges suffered their first loss in the final game of the Invitational on Saturday against Franklin College. The women’s volleyball team lost 1-3, dropping the first set before coming back in the second, only to fall in the next two sets of the match. The team generated a strong defense, but offensively couldn’t find the holes in Franklin’s defense with a hitting percentage of .034. Bartlett led the Judges with 6 kills and 5 blocks. Zara Platt ’19, Decker-Jacoby and Meyers followed close behind with 5 kills each. Defensively, the Judges produced 86 digs total, with Cho contributing 24 and Meyers 18 digs in the game against Franklin. The loss put the Judges at 2-1 for this season.
As for Decker-Jacoby’s thoughts on their lost and what is to come for the team in the future, she commented, “Our game on Saturday taught us we are going to face a lot of teams who have a very strong defense…(but) our focus every day is playing for each other and improving for not just yourself but for your teammate standing next to you.”
The Brandeis women’s volleyball team plays again this Friday, Sept. 8 at 6 p.m. against Bowdoin College in the New England Invitational, hosted by Brandeis at the Auerbach Arena.
