Volleyball Runs Table in NESCAC Tournament, Receives NCAA Bid

The Middlebury women’s volleyball team celebrated their fourth NESCAC Championship on Sunday after winning three games in a span of three days to clinch the title. The Panthers played Trinity on Friday, Bowdoin on Saturday and Connecticut College in the finals on Sunday. The final victory marked the program’s second championship in the past three years, and their fourth in 14 years, having won in 1997, 1998 and 2010.

The team finishes their first post-season tournament with a strong 22-6 record, guaranteeing them a spot in the NCAA tournament beginning this Friday with a match against Southern Vermont.

The top eight teams that were competing in the NESCAC Championship were first-ranked Connecticut College, followed in ranked order by Middlebury, Bowdoin, Amherst, Williams, Tufts, Trinity and Colby.

Middlebury started off the tournament playing Trinity College in the quarterfinals. The game confirmed the league seeding, as second-ranked Middlebury defeated the seventh-seeded Trinity College in a 3-0 match. Although the score of the game suggests an easy victory, Trinity performed well and lost all three sets by a narrow margin (24-26, 22-25, 18-25). The first set was the closest out of all three, but the Middlebury victory was confirmed when Megan Jarchow ’14 had a kill and captured the set when a Trinity attack went wide.

Trinity began the second set with a 6-2 lead, but the Panthers quickly bounced back to keep the set close. Maddie Firestone ’13 finished it off with a violent kill. The home team controlled the last set of the match, and the lead never fell below four points after the first two points of the set. Jarchow finished the with 10 kills while Julia Gibbs ’13 led the way with 11.

Kathryn Haderlein ’16 had a wonderful debut in the NESCAC tournament, dishing out 31 assists and taking 13 digs, while senior libero and tri-captain Caitlin Barrett ’13 led the team with 14 digs.

The following day the Panthers headed into the semi-final match against Bowdoin.

“We knew that we would likely face a rematch against Bowdoin in the semifinals,” said Meg Anderson ’14. After beating Bowdoin a week earlier in the second-to-last regular season game, the squad anticipated a tough contest.

“It’s always harder to beat a team the second time around,” Anderson continued. “We came out strong and even though we lost a little momentum in the second and third sets, we pulled out a close fourth set win and dominated the fifth set.”

It took Middlebury five sets to win the game (21-25, 25-19, 25-19, 23-25, 6-15). Bowdoin came out tougher and far more competitive than they did the previous week when Middlebury beat them in just four sets that were not nearly as close in points.

Jarchow led the offensive attack with 13 kills, while Gibbs trailed close behind her with 10. Piper Underbrink ’15 and Amy Hart ’14 also piled up a mass of kills with seven and six respectively. The Panthers dominated the team count of collective digs, with Gibbs and Barrett leading the pack with a combined total of 43 digs. Other notable contributions included Sarah Studwell’s ’13 five service aces and Firestone and Jarchow’s 2.5 blocks.

The win over the Polar Bears meant that the Middlebury women’s volleyball team advanced into the finals of the NESCAC Championship. On Sunday they suited up for the final game of the weekend to play number-one ranked Connecticut College.

The match ended as a 3-0 shutout after a 25-20 first set, a 25-17 second set and a 25-23 final set. After taking a 25-20 decision in the first set, the visiting squad took a huge lead in the second set with the help of one of Haderlein’s many kills.

Later in the set, Hart helped the team to keep the advantage with kills on the left side. Jarchow finally closed out the set with the final game-winning kill.

The Camels held a three-point advantage in the third set of the game, until two kills from Jarchow on successive points put the Panthers back on top. She sealed the victory when she joined forces with Underbrink for a final block to win the game.

“The championship was a total team effort with everyone contributing to the wins. Now we have the week to prepare for NCAAs,” said Anderson.

The victory not only advanced the Panthers to the NCAA tournament, but it also snapped the Camels’ 14-game winning streak, ending their season with a 24-3 record.

Senior tri-captain Caitlin Barrett ’13 was named NESCAC Player of the Week. As libero of the team, she anchored the back row with 5.27 digs per set over three matches, and simultaneously picked up three service aces. This past weekend Barrett totaled 23 digs in the game against Connecticut College and had 21 digs in the five-set win over Bowdoin on Saturday.