Volleyball Drops First Game of the Season

The Middlebury women’s volleyball team’s winning streak came to an end on Friday, Oct. 4 at the hands of Wesleyan. On Saturday, Oct. 5, the Panthers bounced back against NESCAC contestant Trinity by winning 3-0, before they topped Keene State in a 3-1 win. Middlebury had begun the season with 10 straight wins, only dropping 2 sets out of their first 32 before falling to the Cardinals.

Wesleyan has had a turbulent season so far, going 6-9 overall, and 2-3 in conference play, but came into the game on Friday off of back-to-back wins. The Cardinals came out of the gate quickly and won a close first set against Middlebury 25-22. The second set shifted momentum back in the Panthers favor, as they trounced Wesleyan with a score of 25-11. However, Wesleyan wasn’t ready to throw in the towel yet, and came back to beat Middlebury 25-21. Four of the last five Wesleyan points came off of errors committed by Middlebury, including three attack errors and a service error. Middlebury cleaned up its act in the fourth set, but ultimately Wesleyan’s offense proved too much, and 15 Cardinal kills led to Middlebury’s first loss of the season.

“I think the big take-away from this weekend was that we need to be on top of our game for any and all conference opponents,” head coach Sarah Raunecker said.  “They’re all good teams.  I think the big difference this weekend against Wesleyan was that our serve, receive and defense were not as strong as we needed them to be.”

However, despite the disappointing loss on Friday, the women’s volleyball program came out the next day ready to prove their spirit was not beaten. Once again on the road, the Panthers went to Trinity to face their second NESCAC opponent in as many days.

They wasted little time in dispatching their first opponents of the day, sweeping the Bantams with set scores of 25-18, 25-21 and 25-21. Senior co-captain Amy Hart ’14 had a particularly impressive game on both sides of the net, earning 14 kills and 12 digs to anchor the defense, while Kathryn Haderlein ’16 and Katie Chamberlain ’16 did their part with eight and 10 digs, respectively.

The Panthers carried this momentum into the game against Keene State. The Owls, meanwhile, were riding a hot streak of four straight wins of their own.

After Keene State took the first set in a nail biter, 28-26, Middlebury settled down and won the next three sets, to improve to 2-0 on the day. Co-captain Megan Jarchow ’14 continued what was an impressive offensive weekend with 17 kills in the game, making 31 total kills for the weekend. The senior’s impressive play earned her NESCAC Player of the Week honors. Piper Underbrink ’15 also had an explosive game, striking 14 kills with a .500 hitting percentage. Hart once again turned in an exceptional defensive effort, with 18 digs.

Despite her NESCAC accolades, Jarchow remains grounded in her team’s ambitions.

“After our loss on Friday night, it was clear that we needed to really focus on our serve receive and defense,” Jarchow said. “We need to step up our defense so that we can keep rallies going and run our strong offense more often. If we can pass and dig like I know we can, we will be able to dominate our last few NESCAC match-ups.”

Following the 2-1 weekend the Panthers trail only Williams and Bowdoin in the NESCAC. Middlebury hosts Amherst on Saturday, Oct. 11 and Williams on Sunday, Oct. 12, two opponents who are also looking to gain ground in the conference race.