The women's volleyball team dropped its second game in a row last Thursday night to Northeastern, 3-1. The loss moves Dartmouth's record to 12-8 for the season.
"We just didn't have the right combination ever in the match," Coach Ann Marie Larese said. "Northeastern is a scrappy team. They don't give away points easily."
Dartmouth was minus two starters again this game. Freshmen outside hitters Erin Clarke and Alison McKinley both sat out their second game due to sickness and a knee injury, respectively.
Last Tuesday, when Dartmouth fell to Harvard 3-1 in Cambridge, both hitters were unable to complete the game due to these ailments.
"Alison had to warm up to see how her knee felt," Larese said. "I pulled her during the warm-up because she just couldn't go 100 percent yet."
For Dartmouth, the first game represented a game of unforced errors. According to Captain Carmen Schmitt '97, the team made 20 errors in that game alone, a number that might be high for an entire match.
"The errors were in everything -- serve-receive, serving, net errors, and hitting," Schmitt said. "That really killed us. Northeastern wasn't doing anything spectacular. It was all our own errors."
The team recovered in the second, however, giving Northeastern a challenge. Northeastern could not keep up in this game and fell to the Big Green, 15-5.
Middle blocker Danra Kazenski '99 found several opportunities to tip the ball over Northeastern's blocker to help the Big Green out in their win in game two.
The third game was a battle between the two teams, both putting up a strong effort. Northeastern prevailed, though, leaving Dartmouth behind 2-1.
"The third game was close but we just couldn't push it out," Larese said.
The fourth game proved a decisive victory for Northeastern, 15-1, handing Dartmouth the 3-1 loss.
"We were completely out of the match," Larese said.
Northeastern's first server scored nine points off of Dartmouth, which failed to counter.
"We have to have confidence in each other," Schmitt said. "Just because we have two players out doesn't mean we have to fall apart. I give credit to Northeastern for hanging in there."
Larese said, "We haven't been playing up to our abilities for the past two weeks," Larese said. "It came to a head during this match. We just didn't get great play from six people. You can't win a match that way."
Dartmouth looks to get back on track this Tuesday when the team takes on the University of Vermont away.
"For the past three weeks we've been trying to get over this hump and get back to how we were playing, up to our potential, back in September," Schmitt said.
