The unexpected became an ugly reality for the Dartmouth women's volleyball team Friday night. In the opening match of their Ivy League season, the Big Green was struck down by a struggling Harvard in three games 15-6, 15-11, 15-9.
In Saturday's action, the Dartmouth women lost to Fairfield in five games and handily beat Long Island University in three.
The match against Harvard was a struggle from the beginning. After Harvard opened up a 1-0 lead in the first game, the teams traded 10 consecutive sideouts.
With an 8-4 lead midway through the game, Harvard turned it up and went on a quick 6-0 run. The Big Green scored two more points in the game, but Harvard closed out the game.
Dartmouth started game two with renewed enthusiasm as they opened up a 3-0, and eventually stretched it to 10-5, but Harvard responded by going on a 10-1 run to close out the second game.
Down two games, Dartmouth struggled to find the attitude necessary to execute.
"We couldn't seem to get composed enough to turn the match around," Paige Perry '00 said.
Harvard jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead in the third game. Dartmouth got as close as 9-7, but ineffective blocking couldn't stop the Crimson hitters.
"Our blocking was nowhere," Coach Anne Marie Larese said. "We allowed them to hit their first best shot all the time."
With match point on the line, the Big Green held a players-only meeting during a timeout. Coming out of the timeout, Dartmouth generated a sideout on a kill by Danra Kazenski '99, but Dartmouth couldn't score any points, and Harvard went on to victory.
A stunned coach Larese summed up the lackluster performance.
"We were never in the match," Larese said. "I knew from the first five points of the match that it was going to be a struggle."
Harvard played strong defensively, neutralizing the Big Green offense with an average of 24 digs for each of the three games.
Crimson coach Jennifer Bates termed her team as "Better than our 2-4 record would indicate," but also said that "This was the best match we've played all season."
Sophomore Alison McKinley, who continues to lead the team in kills and digs had two kills from the back row in game three, and finished with 33 for the weekend.
The key stats for the match were Dartmouth's averages of 15 digs and 1.6 blocks per game, both significantly lower than their season averages.
Saturday morning the Big Green played Fairfield, a team with only seven players. Again they struggled, losing in five games, 15-11, 14-16, 9-15, 15-6, 12-15. Several players put up big numbers, but it wasn't enough to combat the Fairfield offense.
Maria Stutsman y Marquez '98 led the team with 16 digs, while Kazenski, who was sick all weekend, had 11 kills on 19 attempts, and three blocks in the match.
"We should have been able to last longer," Larese said.
In contrast to the opening of the Harvard match, Dartmouth opened up a 8-0 lead over Long Island University in the Big Green's final match of the weekend, and went on to win easily, 15-6, 15-10, 15-3.
Janna Merryfield '00, who converted on six of 10 kill attempts without an error described L.I.U.'s style of play.
"We watched them warm up and realized right away that we would have to be careful not to sink to their level of play," Merryfield said. "It was jungle ball, weird stuff coming over the net."
In game three Carmen Schmitt '97 put on a serving clinic, hitting five aces during a nine point Dartmouth run. Of her six aces for the match, Schmitt said, "When I get into the game, I need to contribute with energy, and one way is to serve tough."
"Serve receive is completely mental, so if I could keep picking on the poor passers or the girl who just shanked the ball, then I will get an ace or at least force them to run their second or third option for offense," said Schmitt of her game three streak.
The source of this weekend's faltering play can be traced back to defensive ineffectiveness and lack of intensity. Dartmouth came into the weekend leading the country with an average of 23 digs per game, but over the weekend it averaged only 16.
Several players also made the comment that the team's passive, reactive play hurt the team.
"It seemed as if we were waiting for Harvard to give us the game instead of taking the game to them," McKinley said.
The team played in front of larger than normal crowds this weekend due to the annual Dartmouth Volleyball Parents Weekend. All of the parents of the '00's were in town, and several of the upperclassmen had parents come to the games as well.
Up next for the Big Green (8-6) is a match against the University of Vermont this Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. in Leede Arena.
