The Dartmouth women's volleyball team saw its five-game winning streak come to a sudden halt this weekend, as it lost two difficult games to Ivy League opponents. The Big Green fell to the University of Pennsylvania, 3-0, on Friday night, before losing to Princeton University, 3-2, on Saturday.
Co-captain Amber Bryant '12 said the Big Green (9-5, 1-2 Ivy) played poorly and was unhappy with its performance.
"We can't play like that again," she said. "We were prepared, but we didn't show up for the game."
The match started off on even footing, with both teams battling for the lead throughout the first set. Penn (5-8, 1-2 Ivy) held a 17-14 lead late in the set, but Dartmouth scored four consecutive points off a kill by Annie Villanueva '12, a double block by Elisa Scudder '14 and Madeline Baird '12, a kill by Baird, and another double block by Scudder and Alissa Santa Maria '13.
Penn tied the score at 18, but Dartmouth fought back to win the next three points, including one on an ace by Santa Maria. Penn managed to re-tie the score, however, and took the set by a two-point margin despite a kill by Scudder.
Penn capitalized on its momentum and did not let up for the remainder of the game. Dartmouth's attempts to find any sort of rhythm fell flat.
"We were unable to execute our offensive and defensive systems effectively," Kendall Houston '12 said.
Penn won the next two sets decisively, both with scores of 25-17.
Errors plagued Dartmouth throughout the matchup, with 27 of Penn's 75 total points resulting from Big Green mistakes.
Dartmouth took to the court again the following day to take on Princeton (10-5, 3-0 Ivy). Prepared to prove themselves against a strong Princeton team that has not lost in the League this season, the Big Green brought energy and aggression to the match.
"We showed up fully prepared and motivated from our tough loss on Friday night," Houston said.
Although it played solidly, Dartmouth fell, 3-2, in a competitive five-set game.
Houston said that despite the loss, the team played better than it did the previous night.
"Our serve receive and defense improved significantly from the night before, and that enabled us to have success offensively," she said.
Princeton came out quickly and took the first set, 25-19, but Dartmouth fought right back with a 25-20 win in the second set. Princeton rallied to win the third set before Dartmouth won the fourth by a large margin, 25-15.
The Tigers took the lead in the beginning of the fifth set and never let go. Although a kill by Villanueva brought the Big Green within one point at 12-11, Princeton won the next three points to close out the match.
Houston largely attributed the loss to the Big Green's inability to control out-of-system balls.
"That was the big difference in the game," she said.
Bryant added that Dartmouth is capable of beating the Tigers, despite Princeton's strong start to the season.
"We put up a good fight," she said. "We just needed to execute a little bit more consistently and we would have won the game."
The Big Green plays Yale University and Brown University on the road this weekend.
