5 Game Skid to End Regular Season and Spur Post Season Run

Well, we got to see what #4 in the country looked like when we played MIT.  They were good, and although we didn't think we played our best, they were a very tough opponent and forced us out of what we wanted to do.  We did have some alums and parents of alums there to watch in addition to some of our own parents, and we still had two good teams to play the next day vs Springfield and Babson, both ranked in the top of NE.  To the right are the parents of former standout setter, Katie Kenney Enslin '03, and below is former player and coach, Meg Anderson '14.  We LOVE the support we continue to get from former MCVB families, reinforcing that MCVB really is "family for life!"  THANK YOU!

Unfortunately for us, our woes continued the next day as we lost a tightly contested Springfield match in 5 sets and then lost another tightly contested 3 set sweep by Babson.  Needless to say, it was a disappointing weekend for us as we just were out of sync and couldn't quite put a run together anywhere on the court.  It was an odd sensation after having played so well together for quite a stretch.  Moreover, none of us seemed able to put a finger on just what exactly was going wrong.

Well, we got back to work and still felt like we had a lot of volleyball left to play.  We were still ranked 2nd in both the NESCAC and in the Region and were heading into our final weekend against the two lowest ranking teams in our Conference, which actually doesn't mean all that much because everyone is SO good and the parity among NESCAC teams is tremendous, but there you are.  We had already guaranteed ourselves a home game for the playoffs regardless of the outcome, but of course, we wanted to finish strongly and end with a 9-1 record in Conference for the first time ever!  We had a great week of practice and celebrated Halloween at our final practice before hitting the road.  

As fate would have it, our woes seemed to continue as we went down 0-2 sets to Amherst the first night.  We couldn't seem to get any momentum, and they were fighting and winning the long rallies, it seemed.  Statistically, we had more kills and a higher hitting % (by a little bit), but they out blocked us and also had more service aces and those were two categories that we prided ourselves in all season, so that was disappointing.  Anyway, we came back to force a 5th and deciding set and seemed poised to erase a potentially bad loss but came up short and lost 10-15 in the final.  A bummer for sure, but we were on the road that night toward Hamilton with a chance the very next day to redeem ourselves and finish the regular season on a high note.

Not to be, apparently, as we promptly went down 0-2 sets again, just like the night before.  Again, we came back to win the next two and force a 5th and deciding set.  Against Bowdoin earlier in the season we'd broken a somewhat long streak of not winning 5th sets, and we felt confident that we could overcome anything...we narrowly lost the 2nd set and came back to win the 3rd and 4th sets in somewhat more dominating fashion keeping them in the teens both sets.  I think we felt like "it" was coming back, meaning our confidence and our style of play, so despite losing the first two sets, we felt ready to reverse sweep them for our final regular season win.  As in the night before, we had more kills and a higher hitting %, but got out blocked and had fewer service aces, which we knew was not a good combination. Lillian came through with a big performance with 15 kills and a .289 hitting % and Gabbie was only 1 kill away from a triple double (9 K, 46 As, 19 D), but it wasn't quite enough to stop them from grabbing the final set 13-15.  Needless to say, it was a very disappointing weekend, and we'd need to do some soul searching before hosting a tough Bowdoin team in the NESCAC Quarterfinals at home the following weekend.