On Friday, the Dartmouth women (12-6, 3-4 Ivy) had some trouble gelling as a team, getting off to a slow start.
"We weren't playing well together, and there was no chemistry," Kendall Houston '12 said.
The Brown Bears, likely motivated by the possibility of their first Ivy League victory, took the first game fairly easily with a score of 25-18. The Big Green, however, fought back in an attempt to defend its home turf, winning the second game 25-19.
Dartmouth's momentum appeared to carry over to the beginning of the third game, in which the women were off to a strong start. The Bears proved their resilience, however, by rallying to take the lead in the middle of the game. The Big Green was unable to bounce back and stop the opposition from capturing a 25-17 win.
Brown led for much of the fourth game, never letting Dartmouth take a substantial lead. A couple of great plays from Alissa Santa Maria '13, however, brought the Big Green to within two at 21-19. The Bears were forced to call a time-out, after which Madeline Baird '12 took to the service line. An ace by Baird, a kill by Kelsey Johnson '11, three Brown errors and one incredibly long and scrappy rally brought the score to 24-24 in the subsequent points.
Unfortunately, the Big Green could not capitalize on its opportunity to take the game, as a kill by Brown's Brianna Williamson ended the match. Williamson totaled 17 kills and hit .500 overall in the match.
Elisa Scudder '14 boasting a hitting percentage of .607 led both teams in kills, tallying 19 on the game. Baird was close behind with 16, and, additionally her total of 13 digs earned her a double-double. Santa Maria led in assists with 39.
Overall, the team was not too pleased with its Friday night performance.
"We weren't communicating or being ourselves on the court," Annie Villanueva '12 said. "We played so much more like ourselves on Saturday [against Yale]."
Houston agreed that to some degree the team bounced back in its second game of the weekend.
"We finally kind of figured it out," she said.
Unfortunately, this change in mentality wasn't enough to seal the win over the Yale Bulldogs.
The games were back and forth, with no team clearly dominating the other. Dartmouth won the first game 25-17, but fell in the second 28-26. Though the women rose again to win the third game 25-22, they couldn't pull through to end the match in four games, as the fourth game went to Yale 25-13. In the fifth and final game, Yale led much of the time. Dartmouth had one last rally that brought the score close, but the Big Green eventually fell 15-12.
Despite the loss, the Dartmouth players were still pleased with the match.
"We played well, it just didn't work out in our favor," Houston said.
As the team prepares for the rest of its Ivy League games, Villanueva said she is confident looking ahead.
"It's too bad we lost, but we're optimistic about the second half of Ivies," Villanueva said.
Dartmouth is set to take to the road this weekend to face Columbia University in New York City at 7:00 p.m. on Friday and Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday.
