Volleyball Swept by ’Jeffs, Ephs, Falls to 3-3 in NESCAC

The Middlebury’s women’s volleyball team struggled through a tough pair of games on Friday, Oct. 11 and Saturday Oct. 12, falling to Amherst on Friday 3-0, then Williams on Saturday with the same score. These were the Panther’s first consecutive losses of the season. Dropping these games will haunt the volleyball team for what is likely the rest of the season, as Amherst and Williams are both important NESCAC rivals, who, before this weekend, had only been one game ahead of the Panthers. In order to finish near the top of the table this season, the Panthers will have to remain undefeated in conference play, and hope the Lord Jeffs and Ephs cannot do the same.

On Friday, the Jeffs took the first and second sets comfortably 25-16 and 25-17 respectively. The Panthers put up a fight in the third set, going up 8-0, but eventually submitted to a 24-20 loss.

Perhaps it was the pressure of facing an important conference opponent, but Middlebury committed the 21 errors over all three sets. 12 of these errors occurred in the last set, signaling a collapse in confidence for the Panthers.

Captain Megan Jarchow ’14 once again led the offensive push with 11 kills, but 10 errors with 35 overall touch attempts meant she would only post a .029 kill percentage. This was Middlebury’s worst showing of the season, with the Panthers posting only a collective .085 kill percentage, with 21 errors and 34 points.

Coach Sarah Raunecker is using the weekend as a learning experience.

“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,” Raunecker said.  “They’re all just good teams.”

The next day, Middlebury once again suffered a conference loss against Williams. This game was a better showing of the Panthers’ overall potential, as they posted higher numbers across the board, with a better kill percentage of .097, yet still  finished with only 34 points. Middlebury seemed to be more on the same page, committing far fewer service errors and having a more solid passing game. Olivia Kolodka ’15 had a good game, posting seven kills with a .400 kill percentage, and putting four digs on the board.

Kolodka believed that despite the loss, the Panthers responded well to the poor performance on Friday.

“Our game against Williams did a better job of showing our potential than our game against Amherst,” Kolodka said. “Our passing in particular was much better, allowing us to really compete with Williams.  There were some really long, intense rallies that we fought through, but in the end Williams won more of those points than we did.”

She remains optimistic about the remainder of the season.

“Going forward, I see us playing with a new level of intensity to prove that we can compete at a higher level,” Kolodka said.

Middlebury faces two more conference opponents next weekend, with Connecticut College on Friday, Oct. 18 and Tufts on Saturday, Oct. 19, both of which are away. The Panthers still hope to place near the top of the NESCAC table, and will look to prove they are capable this upcoming weekend.