Two weeks ago, Brandeis had a difficult tournament in St. Louis and suffered a crushing home loss to Tufts. Heading into the Amherst hall of fame tournament, the goal of the Judges was to put St. Louis behind them and cut down on the errors and communication issues. One out of three isnt bad.
Last weekend at Amherst, Brandeis finished 1-3 for the tournament: losing to Williams (28-30, 27-30, 30-27, 23-30), Wheaton (24-30, 33-35, 15-30). They pulled off a victory against Mt. Holyoke (30-23, 30-18, 30-16) before falling flat against Gordon (28-30, 25-30, 30-22, 28-30).
We didnt play all that great I guess, Coach Michelle Kim told The Hoot.
Jenny Sandler 08 led on offense and defense with 18 kills and 23 digs, Lorraine Wingenbach 09 added a double-double herself with 11 kills and 16 digs. Violette Ruggiero 09 had 40 assists and 16 digs while Shannon Trees 08 offered up 10 digs of her own.
Against Wheaton, Wingenbach led the offense with 11 kills, while Sandler contributed 10 of her own and Trees led the defense with 16 kills.
In their victory against Mt. Holyoke, every player saw action and Wingenbach had 15 kills and 11 digs, Sandler had 12 digs of her own.
In their match against Gordon, Wingenbach and captain Jenna Polinsky 05 led the offense with 19 and 13 kills respectively while each contributed 18 digs.
When asked for comment the next day, one player said no! Coach Michelle Kim was more effusive in commenting on the tournament.
She praised their defensive efforts saying, You can tell theyre just trying really, really hard to be in the right position at all times and they did a great job with that.
She was however dismayed with the errors. Against Gordon in particular, Brandeis committed 34 errors including 11 in the last game. Coach Kim also expressed concern that the team had not completely recovered from the St. Louis tournament.
With the season 4 competition days away from conclusion, Brandeis is gearing up for the Judges tournament, which is hosted at Red Auerbach Arena. There will be a revenge factor for the Judges in this tournament as theyll face Gordon and Endicott who have beaten them this season.
Coach Kim told me that as a coach, it is her job to always look towards the future and that improvement happens beyond one game, or one week or even one season. Still, with focus on the now, let us hope the volleyball team demonstrates whose house this is.
