After winning their first round of the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) tournament in a home game Wednesday, Nov. 8, the Brandeis women’s volleyball team made the nine-hour journey to Frostburg, MD, for the quarterfinal match against Bethany College in West Virginia on Saturday, Nov. 11.

In a nail-biter quarterfinal round, the Judges trumped Bethany in a five-setter, advancing to the semifinals with a final score of 25-23, 33-31, 18-25, 21-25, 15-6.

Libero Yvette Cho ’19 put up a career-high of 48 digs throughout the entire game. The impressive stat put her in the top five of all career digs from Brandeis players, putting her at 1,450 total career digs so far.

Outside hitter Shea Decker-Jacoby ’19 similarly contributed to the win, putting up double-double with 20 digs and 14 kills, one of which was the kill that secured the Judges’ 33rd point in the marathon second set.

With this win, the Judges improved their season record to 17-14 while ending Bethany’s season at 23-13.

The tough five-set win put the Judges into the semifinals against Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) in Florham, a team hailing from Madison, NJ, the next day. The game, played at Frostburg State University, was ultimately the last of the Judges 2017 season. Despite a close first set, and a second-set win for the Judges, Brandeis ultimately couldn’t hold on and dropped the match in four sets.

Emma Bartlett ’20 earned an impressive 19 kills throughout the match, leading the Judges in hitting. Bartlett contributed at the net in blocks as well, defending against the FDU offense with five total blocks, leading the Judges in that statistical category as well.

Cho, again, led the Judges in digs with 29 total against FDU. Bartlett and Cho were each named to the All-Tournament team for their performances in the tournament.

Brandeis women’s volleyball ended their season with a winning record at 17-15, an improvement on the 2016 season’s 7-21 record.