The Big Green (13-10, 4-8 Ivy) went into their penultimate weekend of the regular season against Yale, a team which holds a perfect home record this season. Yale (16-7, 10-2 Ivy) displayed their ability to dominate by defeating Dartmouth in three straight games 25-8, 25-10 and 25-17.
Currently in first place in the Ivy League standings, the Bulldogs were in control throughout all three matches. Yale jumped ahead in every game by scores of 16-4, 17-4 and 11-3 early in each match, preventing the Big Green from ever making a serious push to win a game.
Alissa Santa Maria '13 came through for Dartmouth with 13 assists and 11 kills, while Annie Villanueva '12 saw five kills.
Villanueva is a staff photographer for The Dartmouth.
Despite these individual efforts, the Big Green were unable to make a comeback due to numerous attack errors including six in a row during the second game. This was atypical of the team this season as they have made it a habit of having fewer attacking errors than their opponents this season.
The Big Green fell to Brown (8-16, 2-10 Ivy), 3-1, the following afternoon.
Dartmouth started out strong, tying the opening match, 23-23, when a block from Kendall Houston '12 and Elisa Scudder '14 gave Dartmouth the lead. Madeline Baird '12 won the set for the Big Green.
Kelsey Johnson '11 contributed five kills to the Big Green's success. The Big Green was not able to continue their success as the next three matches went to Brown, 25-13, 25-15 and 25-17.
Brown's success was a result of the consistency they were able to maintain throughout the four games. Brown had between 12 and 16 kills through the four games of the match while Dartmouth struggled to put up such steady numbers on the attack as the Big Green's kill totals went from 19 in the first game down to six in the second.
The team knew that it was in for a challenge going into the weekend, according to Baird.
"Yale hasn't lost at home this whole season and Brown had senior night," Baird said. "It was a definitely a factor to know it was the seniors' last weekend."
On an individual note, Johnson and Baird both displayed Dartmouth's ability to attack with 14 and 12 kills against Brown, respectively. Baird's performance this weekend keeps her in second place in kills in the Ivy League with 335 only nine behind conference leader sophomore Lydia Rudnick of Princeton University.
Baird said that the team's inability to perform consistently on the road has been difficult.
"I think we're optimistic but it's been pretty challenging and pretty disappointing," she said. "We know we have a lot of potential which we haven't maximized."
The team will take on University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University this weekend in their season finale against the Ivy League's number two and three teams. The Big Green lost to both teams two weeks ago on the road, but will now get a chance to take on both teams in Hanover. "We definitely want to have two competitive matches," Baird said of the upcoming weekends. "It would be awesome to walk out with two wins to end the regular season for our seniors."
The upcoming weekend's games will be the last for captain Jessie Hartman '11 and Johnson in a Dartmouth uniform.
Johnson is the team's third leading point contributor with 217, while Hartman has provided strong defensive support with 194 digs this season.
The women's volleyball team will play Princeton on Friday night at 6 p.m. in Hanover. The team will then play its season finale against Penn at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
