Amherst was our first opponent on Friday night, and they came out firing on all cylinders, it seemed, and we were just a bit slow out of the gates. We had trouble getting our offense going, and were thus on the defensive all night, and without good opportunities to pressure them back. By the third game, however, we seemed to be getting something going as we jumped out to an 8-0 lead. They would fight back into it, and then we stayed within two points of each other, sometimes us up, sometimes them until we were tied at 20-20. Amherst then finished out the set on 5 straight points. I think we were a little amped up with it being Parents Weekend and all, or still trying to adjust to playing without Piper, and Olivia was still coming off the flu, but at any rate, we at least played again right away the next afternoon to get right back up on the horse, so to speak.
Saturday afternoon, we faced the only previously unbeaten team in NESCAC in Williams, and they proved to be a very tough opponent indeed. The first set we were horribly shocked, I think as we only scored 12 points. We hung in there for a while in the second set, but they had strings of multiple points in a row when we were only getting one or two, it seemed, to keep us constantly trailing and playing catch-up, and we just couldn't muster a counter attack to get back in it. The final game was competitive as well, with some great rallies, long rallies, and scrappy play on both sides of the net, but again, we seemed to come out on the short end of the stick as the second purple team blanked us in as many days.
Some highlights of the weekend, however, were of course, all the families there to cheer us on! In addition to the families, we had a guest coach on our bench in Sarah Studwell '13, and Nicki '13.5 was in the stands to cheer us on, in addition to the Beans--minus Whit '10, who apparently was studying for Grad School finals. Not only did she miss seeing us, but also missed her little brother who's staring on the men's soccer team this year as a freshman, and they had a great weekend winning two games, putting them in second place NESCAC right now.
MJ and Amy led the team in kills with 11, and 10 respectively on Friday night, however, our team hitting % was much lower than our goal of .200, so we're working on that! Additionally, Lizzy made her debut at playing libero on Saturday, Olivia had a stellar hitting % against Williams hitting .400, Amy again led the team in kills with 12 on Saturday, and Gabi and Kathryn led the team with two blocks each on Saturday. We actually held a slight advantage over Williams in the blocking category, which was great to see.
The whole team (I think?!) went out to Flatbread for dinner on Saturday, which had to be a lot of fun. I went home and just hung out with my family for a little down-time since we'll be on the road for the next two weekends.
I'm not sure what everyone had planned for Sunday, but I took my two youngest kids for a hike since it was so gorgeous! Fall in VT is surely beautiful, and we were very happy for all the families that traveled here this weekend that Fall Family Weekend turned out so beautiful!
Now, we'll have all week to prepare for Conn and Tufts with no mid-week matches, which will be nice. Then, the following week is Oct. Break, and then we're off to Hall of Fame before having our last NESCAC home stand of the season on Nov. 1-2. Wow, how time flies, it seems! We're hoping to regroup a bit this week to be ready to get back in a groove next weekend.
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