The ladies of Middlebury volleyball have really begun to hit their stride as their season passes the midway point, mowing down NESCAC opponent Trinity on Friday in straight sets (25-13, 25-19, 25-23) before proceeding to dispatch another pesky conference foe, Wesleyan, just as quickly on Saturday (25-22, 25-20, 25-18). After opening the season at 3-2 and dropping their first NESCAC matchup against Bowdoin, the Panthers have not looked back. The squad is now riding an eight-game win streak, the last six of which have come on the road. During the entire streak, the team has needed a full five sets to secure a victory only twice.
Middle blocker Melanie English ’17 was quick to credit the team’s acumen and poise, likely unexpected from such a young team back at the start of the season.
“We were a little unsure of what was going to happen, having such a young team with all these new people being dropped right into the game,” English said. “I’ve been very impressed by the attitudes and the mental toughness, especially of the newer people on the team ... Frankly, there’s even more mental toughness than last year. The moments when people would get frustrated or maybe panicked, I’m not seeing that this year.”
On Friday, Middlebury made their presence known early against the Bantams, jumping out to a 9-2 lead in the first set and never even giving Trinity a chance. The strong early play helped to build confidence for the Panthers, as they brought their high level of play to the latter stages of the next two sets. They pulled away from a 17-17 tie in the second and allowed their opponents the tiniest bit of hope before closing them out in the third, overcoming a 21-23 deficit with four straight points for the match victory.
In past weeks, the Panthers had often struggled to come out firing on all cylinders; at Wesleyan on Saturday, they continued to reverse that trend by putting away the Cardinals 25-22 in the first set. Middlebury’s play only got stronger as they won the next two sets by increasing margins of five and seven points, respectively. The defense really stood out in the third set, where the Panthers held Wesleyan’s hitting percentage to .000.
However, English feels that the team still has room to improve, especially in view of this week’s conference foes, Amherst and Williams, who sit tied for second in NESCAC standings.
“I think we’ll have a much bigger challenge coming from Amherst and Williams this week. Even when we do come out and play really well in the first set, sometimes we’ll still have periods during the middle of the game where we sort of let it slide a little bit,” English said. “Coach Raunecker wants us to be playing good volleyball all of the time, rather than just 80% of the time or 90% of the time. We’re looking not to let points go on silly things.”
As usual, outside hitter Becca Raffel ’18 had a strong weekend for the Panthers, leading all players with 13 kills on Friday and 19 on Saturday. Emily Kolodka ’18, who often plays as libero or defensive specialist for the Panthers, separated herself with 17 digs against Trinity and 23 against Wesleyan.
Overall, English expects good things from the team for the rest of the season.
“I feel really good about our capability, physically, to win. The piece that gets tougher — if you’re playing a game against Williams and you know it’s going to be really even — who wants to win,” English said. “Who can bring it that day? I think that’s what this week will start to tell us: where we are, and how much we need to do before NESCACs.”
At home this weekend, the Panthers face Amherst at 8 p.m. on Friday and Williams at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
