Title run comes up short Volleyball loses 3-0 to Bantams in quarterfinals

Author: Sarah Poling Luehrman

The Panthers' hopes for victory in this year's NESCAC tournament were dashed by a determined Trinity squad in a short three games during the quarterfinals last weekend. Middlebury finished the regular season tied for third place in the conference with Amherst, Williams, Trinity and Connecticut College. The Panthers were lucky enough to draw third seed in the tournament, earning them the right to face the team that drew the sixth seed, which turned out to be Trinity. So the Panthers stepped up to the net to face a team that had already bested them twice, and the match was a difficult one from the outset. It wasn't until "halfway through the third game," according to Head Coach Sarah Raunecker, that the team really started to play, which was, unfortunately, too late to claim the victory.

Middlebury lost the first game by a rare 16-point margin, giving Trinity a 30-14 victory and the momentum to carry them through the rest of the match. Play improved for the Panthers a little during the second game, and though they lost once again, they were able to tighten the score margin to 30-23. Things started to look up during the third game as the Panthers finally found their stride and began to give the Bantams a hard time.

The two were neck-and-neck for the final points of the tournament, but Trinity ended the game 32-30 and completed the sweep. "I do feel that if we could have won that game, we would have had a tremendous mental boost, and perhaps the confidence to at least go five with them," commented Raunecker, "but…Trinity played well and deserved to win, end of story."

Jackie Edwards '06 led the offense with a team high of eight kills, while Lindsay Patterson '09 and Lexie Fisher '08 were close behind with six each. As usual, Jamie Wong '06 manned the defense with 20 digs, gaining support from Patterson '09 with 18 and captain Lacee Patterson '06 with 15.

Fisher finished the season with a team high of 305 kills for the season. Adding to the offensive lineup was Edwards, who "really came on this year and was a very important force for us," said Raunecker. Even more notable, however, is Middlebury's defense. The Panthers averaged 21.09 digs per game, the highest in all of NESCAC, largely thanks to Wong, who finished the season with 500 digs total and Patterson '09 and Patterson '06, with 377 and 351 total digs respectively. Patterson '06 stepped up to the position of setter this year, and "did a great job running the offense," said Raunecker.

Also deserving of acknowledgement are the team's first-years, particularly Patterson, who played every match, Olivia Minkhorst and Kate Heath, who immediately took on positions "where we really needed them to step up right away." Though the end of the season may have been disappointing, the Panthers can be proud of these and several other very strong players, and the team's prospects for coming years are strong. Wong cites the highlight of the season as the Panthers 2-0 record against Amherst. "That was a huge goal of ours that we achieved," she said. "It was unfortunate that we ended the season with a loss, but we did have a great time playing together and met some good competition."