The women’s volleyball team has continued to solidify their near perfect season with two wins this past weekend against Emmanuel College and Colby-Sawyer College. With the victories, the team stretches their winning streak to five games and continues to dominate with a 9-2 record.
In the first game on Saturday againstDanielle Chasin the Emmanuel Saints, the Judges settled the game with an easy 3-0 win, boasting scores of 15-25, 20-25 and 21-25. The highlight of the match was the breakout performance by Liz Hood ’15, who broke her career-high record with 21 kills and a .455 hitting average.
Hood has continuously performed as one of the top outside-hitters for the Judges and has pulled some clutch plays to lead her team to victory against teams like Babson College, Rhode Island College and Endicott. The sophomore currently holds the highest record with 168 kills in the season. She explains that going into the Emmanuel game on Saturday she and her team “were all excited, the freshman helped a lot. Since we didn’t lose anyone last year, we’ve all grown as a team. There are four freshman this year, and Maddie Engeler ’16 is a big addition to our team in the front row at blocking.”
Hood also credited Coach Michelle Kim for their hard-earned success this season. “She’s trying to motivate us and keep our energy level high,” Hood said. “She’s been having us scrimmage a lot in practice to work on game situations that really help us play better together. She’s also a very supportive coach, which helps a lot.”
Although Hood has put on a tremendous performance for the Judges, she admitted that her team is successful because of their much improved group effort and unity this season. “This season we started a lot stronger, so it helps us to keep building on it. As our season progresses we play tougher teams, and each win gives us the confidence we need to go into the next game and play tough,” she said.
The second game on Saturday against the Colby-Sawyer Chargers, however, tested the Judges’ strength and willpower. The Judges were down the first two-sets, losing by margins of 26-24 and 25-23; they had to battle back to win three straight sets. With a final score of 3-2, the Judges defeated the Chargers in the last three sets by scores of 20-25, 22-25 and 11-15.
The game between the Judges and the Chargers saw breakout performances by Yael Einhorn ’14, Si-Si Hensley ’14, Engeler ’15 and Elsie Bernaiche ’15. When the Judges were down after the challenging first two-sets, the girls came together in the third to battle back and work together to gain momentum on the Chargers.
With Einhorn leading the way with a career-high 51 assists and 9 digs, she was able to line up hits for her teammate hitters, Hood ’15 and Hensley ’14. Einhorn now holds a whopping record of 421 assists for the season with a 9.57 assisting average per-game. When asked how she felt about her team’s performance against the Chargers, Einhorn said, “While we were happy with the wins, we were only really happy with the fact that the last game against Colby-Sawyer, where we played to 15 for the tie-break, was the game where we performed. We came through and pulled together and had high energy, which is something we need to play with every game.”
Einhorn explained that as a setter she is one of three players that are always on the court. She went on to say that it is her job “to keep the momentum rolling on our side of the court, and make sure I better the ball if we get a bad pass so my hitters can do well.” With the support of Einhorn on the court, Hensley was able to score a double-double with 15 kills and 14 digs, Bernaiche had 25 digs and Engeler scored 9 kills in 15 attempts.
Although Coach Kim is satisfied with the intensity that the Judges bring to their games and practices, she explained that her team needs to continue raising the bar for the tougher teams they will soon face in the season.
“We’ve been talking as a team about playing with more consistency, and it’s something that we’ll need to continue to work on throughout the season,” Kim said. “We have seen some flashes of great plays so far this season and it shows the potential of this team. We need to work hard as a team to make those plays appear on a more consistent basis.”