Volleyball sets season off well with 3-1 start

Women’s volleyball started its 2010 season with a very strong showing at the Endicott Tournament in Beverly, Mass. this past weekend. After opening the tournament with a 3-0 victory against Emmanuel on Friday afternoon, Middlebury lost a hard-fought game against the host school 3-2 in a heart breaker that night. Shaking off their loss, the Panthers came out strong on Saturday and posted decisive 3-0 victories against Eastern Connecticut and NESCAC opponent Bowdoin College.

The setback against Endicott proved to be the only disappointment of the weekend. If this tournament is any indication of the season these Panthers have in store, it promises to be a very exciting fall for their many enthusiastic fans. Even though the games were all out-of-conference (the team will take on Bowdoin again later in the season for conference play), they provided an opportunity to shake off any early season jitters that the team may have been experiencing and allowed the players to learn how to work together as a team.

An example of how the team is already starting to work together as a coordinated unit could be found in a spectacular face-off between the Panthers and the Polar Bears. In the final match of the weekend, Middlebury started the first set down 21-13 before staging a remarkable comeback and outscoring Bowdoin 12-2 to finish with a win. The team took the momentum from this first set and defeated Bowdoin in the next two sets to win the game. The final two sets provided some tough competition, but with the confidence from the first set the team was able to come up with a 3-0 win.

Elissa Goeke ’12 attributed the impressive rally to positive energy and mental toughness, while Caroline Cordle ’12 felt that team chemistry and depth were key ingredients in making this type of surge so early in the season. They hope the team can continue to find ways to win against future opponents this season by using the lessons of hard work and perseverance exhibited in their dominant first outing this weekend.

“We’ve really come together as a team this fall and everything has really clicked,” said Cordle. “Everybody contributed.”

After a particularly impressive weekend, co-captain Jane Handel ’12 earned well-deserved recognition from both the tournament and the NESCAC. After making the All-Tournament team this weekend, the junior was named NESCAC player of the week on Monday.

The Panthers travelled to Norwich on Wednesday to play the Cadets and will host Amherst for their first conference match this Friday, Sept. 17, at 7 p.m. in Pepin Gymnasium. If the team continues to flex its muscles on the road in such an impressive fashion, we should be in for quite a show when they play here at home with the support and encouragement of their classmates and friends.