MCVB Splits First NESCAC Weekend

We had our first weekend trip with our full team, which was nice.  We headed to Hartford, CT to play Trinity on Friday night and Wesleyan on Saturday afternoon.  We arrived early at Trinity, despite trying to leave at the right time, allowing everyone to stay in class and get lunch beforehand, but it was fun stretching our legs walking around the campus before having to play.  Our only freshman to play this weekend was Chellsa, who started her college debut with a service ace, which was fun to see, and we tested out our 6-2 offense. 

I felt we had a very good first NESCAC match, meaning it was close and we had to stay composed and come from behind in at least one set to pull out a win.  The 2nd set went to extra points before we got the win 27-25, and in the 3rd set, we got out to a large lead, but in typical NESCAC fashion, Trinity stormed back and made the third set a hard fought battle.  We regained our control and pulled out the straight set victory with a 25-20 final set score.  Our hitting % was .309 as Mel, Alice, Isabel, Sarah and Eliana were all over .300!  Here's the link to the Trinity Stats.

The hotel was very nice, and playing at 2pm Saturday allows us a relaxing start to the day after being able to recover and sleep in a bit also.  We found a DD, which is always fun, and we got a short walk in to get there, so that was nice also. 

Wesleyan proved to be a tough contender as we played our first 5 set match.  We're still finding our groove, which looks good at times, and needs polishing at times, which is to be expected this time of year.  Looking at the game metrics, it was a very even match minus one stat:  blocking.  Here are the Wesleyan Stats.  They seemed to have our number a bit, which forced our hitters to find other options--a very good exercise, which we definitely improved upon as the match progressed, but not quite enough to pull out the victory.  As long as we learn from this setback, we'll  keep improving and keep moving forward, which is our daily goal!

We'll continue our quest at improvement this week with a full week of Home Volleyball.  We're back on the court Wednesday for our Home Opener against St. Mikes at 7pm, and again on Friday night at 8pm vs Hamilton, and Saturday at 5pm vs St. Lawrence.  If you're in the area, come on out to see us play all week in Pepin Gymnasium!  Homecoming is Saturday, so there are fun activities all weekend long both in the Gym and all over campus!  Come join in!