MIDD Picks Up Two More Wins in Maine

It wasn't easy, but we came away from Maine with two more Wins, which puts us in a four-way tie for 2nd in NESCAC at the moment.  We stopped at a rest area once into Maine to stretch our legs a bit, so I took a picture of the fake moose, just for fun.  Moose = Maine?!  (We actually saw a moose on the side of the road years ago on our way over the mountains in VT going to Norwich, but that's the only time we've seen one in recent years.)

Colby proved to be a very tough contender and they had a large Friday night crowd there at the beginning, which was a fun atmosphere to play in, even when they're not cheering for you.  We got off to a rough start, and things just weren't smooth and clicking for us.  After dropping the first set, we clawed our way into a two point victory in set two before entering the third set tied at 1-1.  The game teetered back and forth up to a 14-14 tie when Isabel went back to serve and served a total of 10 times taking us to set point.  Colby fought off three points, but then succumbed, and we won the third set 25-16, and took a 2-1 lead in the match. 

We seemed to have found some sort of rhythm, or at least we thought maybe we had, but Colby turned around and took the fourth set from start to finish to force the decisive 5th set.  We started strong and raced out to a 6-1 lead, and eventually a 14-8 lead before Colby again mounted a fight and took three straight points sitting at match point before we notched the final point for the 15-11 win.

The next day was an easy trip down to Bates for our second match of the weekend.  Most of the team hadn't been to either of these Maine schools, so that was fun.  Some of the team was intrigued with the stuffed Bobcat at Bates and posed for a picture before the match! 

We struggled to get going again a little by only hitting .146 in the first set, but managed to get out to a 22-13 lead before Bates made a late run.  We proved to have enough to overpower the Bates squad and we took the first set 25-19.  However, Bates showed it had some fight in them and they completely dominated the 2nd set.  We scored the first point, and never lead after that as Bates jumped out to leads of 4-1, and 19-10 before closing out the second set with a 25-14 win.  It was one of the few, and possibly the only set where we hit a -.065 hitting for the set.  Tough to win doing that.

The last two sets belonged to us, however, as we finally found our stride.  We jumped out to a 7-0 lead behind two kills apiece from Melanie and Eliana and never looked back.  Melanie powered out 4 kills in that set to go with 3 from Eliana, Sarah and Becca as we easily took the set 25-14.  The final set was back and forth and even saw us get behind early by a score of 4-7, and 6-8 before we scored 8 unanswered points to take a commanding 14-8 lead that swelled to 21-12.  Becca exploded for 5 of her 6 kills in the set during that 8 point run stretch and put the match out of reach for a defeated Bates team that just seemed to run out of steam.  We hit a blistering .357 compared to their .114 in the final set to close out the win, and the Maine Sweep!

Now, we're headed to MIT to take on some non-Conference foes from the NEWMAC Conference.  It should be a fun weekend as we get to battle some tough New England teams that are not NESCAC in this dual Conference showdown.  We actually get to root for our NESCAC rivals as it's sort of a Conference vs Conference match-up.  AND, it's Fall Break, so hopefully people will get a little stress relief with a day off from class.  Fun times!