A Friday night win against Cornell would have tied Dartmouth for third in the Ivy League. Unfortunately, despite a season-high 16 blocks from the Big Green's front row, service errors were the difference in a three-game Dartmouth loss.
One of the bright spots for the Big Green was a stellar performance from Whitney Ward '10. The freshman came off the bench to score seven kills while posting a .600 hitting percentage. Dartmouth's blocking effort marked another positive for the Big Green, as blocking has been a problem for the team in the past.
Despite some improvements, setter Katie Hirsch '08 was not satisfied with Dartmouth's performance.
"In the match against Cornell, we didn't play like ourselves," the co-captain said. "We didn't play our style of volleyball and that is what really hurt us."
After dropping the match to the Big Red, Dartmouth "had a team meeting and regrouped," according to Jess Thomas '09. Something in the meeting must have galvanized the women of Dartmouth, especially Thomas and Sandy Barbut '08. Thomas scored 21 kills in the victory over Columbia while Barbut claimed 20.
Dartmouth easily took the first game of the match 30-20, claiming 24 kills to Columbia's eight. The Lions bounced back well, out-hitting the Big Green in the second game to win 30-27.
After taking the third game by a comfortable 30-23 margin, Dartmouth came out swinging into the fourth game of the match, going up 12-2 and 19-5. Unfortunately, the Big Green was unable to maintain its momentum, as Columbia counter-attacked with a 15-5 run to make the score 23-20.
"With the large lead in the fourth game, we slightly relaxed and started making some unforced errors," Thomas said about Columbia's comeback.
With the Lions threatening to force a fifth game, however, the Dartmouth women kept their composure and improved their serve receive and defense to take the third game 30-25.
After splitting this weekend's games, Dartmouth is now halfway through Ivy League play. Hirsch is optimistic about the rest of the season.
"The rest of the season is looking good for us," said Hirsch, who dished out an incredible 60 assists in Dartmouth's victory Saturday. "One of our goals for the first half of the conference season was to be one of the top four teams. It is going to be a fun ride, and I believe we are ready to get some big wins the rest of the season."
Next weekend the women in green hit the road again to play the University of Pennsylvania (7-11, 2-5 Ivy) and Princeton (15-2, 5-2 Ivy), looking for a repeat of their upset over the Tigers and another Ivy win in the match against Penn.
