After a split on the road last weekend, the Dartmouth women's volleyball team still had a mathematical shot to clinch the Ivy League championship coming into this weekend. The squad hoped to beat Princeton and Penn, the top two teams in the conference, for a chance to head into the final homestand of the season a game back of second-place Penn. Dartmouth was unable to pull off an upset in either match, however, losing to Princeton 3-1 and Penn 3-0, effectively ending its conference championship hopes.
With the pair of losses, Dartmouth drops to 6-6 in the league, the first time this season the team's conference record has dipped to .500. The team is still 13-9 overall, thanks mostly to a red-hot start to the season, during which Dartmouth did not drop a single game on its way to a 5-0 record in league play. Since then the Big Green has won only once, against Brown two weeks ago.
Dartmouth attacked early against Princeton (19-3, 11-0 Ivy), outhitting them .318 to .220 in the first game. Fifteen assists by co-captain Katie Hirsch '08 and a kill by Kelsey Johnson '11 at the end sealed a 30-28 win in a game during which Dartmouth never trailed.
Dartmouth was unable to build on its early momentum and lost a tight second game, 30-25. The third game saw outstanding offensive efforts by both teams. The teams were tied 27-27 after a series of digs by co-captain Sandy Barbut '08, but Princeton eventually pulled away to take the game 30-27.
Tied at 18 in the fourth, Frances Samolowicz had a kill off an assist from Hirsch to put Dartmouth up by two and force a Princeton timeout. After the break Dartmouth could not keep up with a strong push by Princeton and dropped the game 24-30.
Barbut tallied team-highs in kills and hitting, with 16 and .385, respectively. She also finished with 17 digs. Also contributing a double-double was outside hitter Megan MacGregor '10, with 14 kills and 14 digs.
According to Coach Ann Marie Larese, Dartmouth failed to executed its game plan after the first game.
"We tried to take one of the most agrressive attackers out of the game and force other kids to have to play better than they are capable of," Larese said. "We didn't do that."
Larese was referring to Princeton's Parker Henritze, whom she called "the best all-around player in the league." Henritze posted an outstanding line of 34 kills, 16 digs and a .406 attack percentage in the match.
"Princeton is the most consistent and best team in the conference," Larese said. "They are strong and have a lot of weapons. It's hard to approach a team with all that."
Despite Princeton's accomplished record, MacGregor still thinks Dartmouth can compete at or above its rival's level.
"We should have beaten them both times we played them," she said. "It was the little things that won them the game. They were more consistent towards the end of the match."
Like they did with Princeton, the Big Green went to Philadelphia hoping to avenge a loss to Penn early in the season. Yet the team was never able to build an offensive rhythm against the relentless Quakers (16-7, 9-2 Ivy), winners of six consecutive matches prior to Saturday night. The final score was 30-20, 30-17, 30-20.
"Penn has a huge block and great servers, which caused the weakness in our serve receive and offensive game to come out," said MacGregor.
The dominant block set up by Penn precipitated an offensive drought for Dartmouth. The Big Green had no player with double-digit kills, and its .062 hitting percentage was its lowest of the season.
"We were pretty disappointed with our performance," Larese said. "It was the first three-straight-game loss of the season. We seemed very disjointed for most of game and you can't really find your speed if you don't feel comfortable and you're just reacting to what the other team is doing."
Dartmouth squares off against defending Ivy champion Cornell (8-14, 4-7 Ivy) this Friday at 7 p.m. in Leede Arena. On Saturday Dartmouth hosts last-place Columbia (3-20, 0-11 Ivy) at 4 p.m.
