After winning the first game of a match against the University of Vermont, the women's volleyball team gave in to its opponent's pressure, losing 3-1 last Thursday night. Five nights later, in Leede Arena, the team fell to Northeastern, 3-0, in its final home match of the season.
The Big Green fought a tough match against UVM, beating the Catamounts in the first game, 15-12.
The second game appeared to be following the same trend. Dartmouth took a 9-2 lead over UVM, but the Catamounts were not discouraged and were able to make a comeback, beating the Big Green 15-13.
In the third game, the teams were matched fairly evenly, but Dartmouth was unable to hold onto the momentum it possessed in the first game and lost to UVM, 15-12.
The fourth game played out much like the second. Dartmouth pulled ahead of UVM and secured an 11-2 lead over the Catamounts, but, once again, UVM rallied and gained enough points to win 16-14. This game concluded the match, leaving UVM the winner at 3-1.
Dartmouth made some changes for the UVM game, hoping to inspire some new energy. One major change involved moving outside hitter Carmen Schmitt '97 to the setting position. Schmitt, who leads the team in kills and digs, played a major role in the first game.
"We had nothing to lose in the new lineup. We needed to do something to shake it up a little bit. Inexperience is hurting us now," Coach Ann Marie Larese said.
Middle blocker and captain Candice Jimerson '95, who leads the team in total blocks and places second behind Schmitt in both kills and digs, was named to the Ivy League Honor Roll for the second week in a row. This status was based on the games against Harvard on Oct. 18 and UVM on Oct. 20.
In the second match of the week, Northeastern defeated Dartmouth, 3-0. This leaves Dartmouth 1-11 overall for the season.
"We felt we had the advantage going into the game," Larese said. "Northeastern got lost [on the way to Hanover] and were 45 minutes late, so their warm-up was very short. But we never got any kind of momentum going."
The Huskies, despite their lack of a proper warm-up, were able to quickly bring the score up to 9-2, leaving Dartmouth behind from the beginning. Several serve receive errors hurt the Big Green, which allowed Northeastern to rack up the points and win 15-5.
"We started off the game really slowly. It was important for us to start off strong and to maintain throughout the game, which we didn't do," Schmitt said.
Dartmouth was able to take a small lead at the onset of the second game, outscoring Northeastern 3-1, but serve receive errors hurt the team and Northeastern soon pulled into the lead and, again, won 15-5.
The third game began slowly for both teams, but Northeastern was able to rally sooner than Dartmouth and ended up winning the final game 15-9 and the match 3-0.
"It was disappointing that we couldn't win it for the seniors since it was their last home game," Schmitt said. "We have two days of hard practice, and then we'll see what we can do over the weekend."
This weekend should prove to be exciting for Dartmouth. The team takes on Yale Friday night and Brown on Saturday.
After the weekend, Yale was in third place in the Ivy League and Brown was in seventh place, just above Dartmouth.
"It will be a great opportunity to pick up a win if we can play well," Larese said.