While the women's volleyball team's record this season may not seem successful, it does not reflect the effort and enthusiasm these women put into the first fully-funded varsity season of volleyball.
The team ended the season with a 2-18 record overall, beating the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore in its first match and Wagner College in the Harvard Tournament two weekends ago.
In the Harvard tournament, the Big Green won one of the four matches they played, beating Wagner 3-2 and losing to Harvard 0-3, University of Vermont 1-3 and University of Hartford 0-3.
Dartmouth lost their first match to the host, Harvard, in three games, 0-15, 5-15 and 8-15. Middle blocker Kai Enos '96 killed six balls and outside hitter Dara Denberg '98 had four kills and eight digs.
Dartmouth was able to stay in the tournament, though, beating Wagner in the second match. Wagner took the first two games, 15-13 and 15-12. The Big Green were able to come back from this 0-2 deficit and won the next three games 15-7, 15-13 and 15-10. This win helped lift Dartmouth's spirits and the team "gained some much needed confidence," Coach Ann Marie Larese said.
Outside hitters Carmen Schmitt '97 and Erin Dawkins '97 had 13 digs and 10 kills, respectively, while outside hitter Stasia Bochnowski '98 alone managed 16 kills and 11 digs.
"It was a tough match against Wagner," captain Candice Jimerson '95 said. "Winning gave us a really good feeling."
Dartmouth's third match at the tournament was against Vermont. The first two games that Dartmouth had played against Vermont earlier in the season resulted in losses with scores of 0-3 and 1-3.
After Vermont took the first game 15-12, Dartmouth picked up the pace and defeated Vermont in the second game, 16-14. Dartmouth was unable to keep up the momentum, however, and fell to Vermont in the last two games 5-15 and 5-15.
These results placed the Big Green at third place in their pool, as well as in the consolation match where they were seeded against University of Hartford. Hartford took all three games, beating Dartmouth 15-9, 15-6 and 15-3.
Enos had five each of digs and kills, while outside hitter Carmen Schmitt '97 had 10 digs.
In the final match of the tournament, Princeton, the winner of the other pool of teams, took on Brown and won 3-1. Brown had come in second place in Princeton's pool, but defeated Harvard, the number one team in Dartmouth's pool, which allowed the Bears to qualify for the finals.
While Dartmouth may not have left Cambridge with a trophy, the weekend was far from a failure. First of all, Dartmouth picked up its second win of the season. Secondly, Schmitt was elected to the All-Tournament team, one of only six players in the entire tournament to receive such a distinction. Thirdly, Bochnowski was placed on the week's Ivy League Honor Roll, having completed 16 successful kills and 11 digs in the Wagner game alone.
"Overall, the officiating was terrible," Larese said. "It cost us some points and momentum at crucial parts of each of the matches."
The next weekend, the team went to Princeton to compete in the Ivy League Tournament and the final matches of the season.
In the first match of the tournament, Dartmouth was seeded against Princeton, the winner of the tournament at Harvard. Princeton won three straight games, 15-1, 15-2 and 15-8.
"We never established any flow and we had to try to keep up with their very powerful offense," Larese said. "Princeton has played great in the second half of the season and really dominated the last two weekends."
In the second match of the tournament, Dartmouth lost to Yale, 8-15, 13-15 and 3-15.
"The score doesn't show how close the match was. We were in it the whole time and really put together the offense and blocked extremely well. We took Yale out of their game and controlled the tempo with our offense," Larese said.
These two matches ended the Big Green's season because the tournament was played according to double elimination rules.
In the final match, Princeton beat the University of Pennsylvania 3-1, and won the title. Tiger setter Kristin Sparato was named the MVP of the tournament.
Although the Big Green were disappointed with their record this season, they were still happy with their efforts and hope to improve their playing for the 1995-96 season.
"We definitely improved throughout the season," said Jimerson. "Our consistency isn't there yet but once we get a stable positioning set, we'll get there. We did very well considering it was our first year as a fully-funded varsity sport. There's a lot of hope for the future."
