"This was our first home tournament since I've been here," middle blocker Kaira Lujan '16 said. "It's really nice because you get to stay in your own room and have a more flexible schedule."
On Friday, the Big Green opened the tournament with a dominant win against Central Connecticut State University, winning 3 sets to 0. The match opened fairly evenly as the teams fought to a 24-24 tie off the bat, leading to a crucial final two points in the set. After an error by the Blue Devils, outside hitter Molly Kornfeind '17 got a kill to close out the set in favor of the Big Green.
The next two sets were less competitive and Dartmouth won them by five and eight points, respectively. Kornfeind led the team with 17 kills, followed by Paige Caridi '16 with seven. Holly Harper '15 led the team with 20 digs as libero, keeping points alive throughout the match.
After a brief layoff, the Big Green took the court again on Friday against Manhattan College. Dartmouth took down the Jaspers as well, this time by a narrower score of three sets to one.
The match was much closer than the final score indicated. Dartmouth won its three sets by two points apiece, showing an impressive ability to close out when the score was tight. On the other hand, the Jaspers won the third set by 25-20 but could not win any sets where the margin was tight.
"Our second match was another good game, but we were definitely a little tired, having played two matches back-to-back," Lujan said. "When you're playing four matches in two days it's a lot, but it's really good for the team and good preparation for the Ivy season. It gets you in situations that we will experience later on."
Dartmouth put up impressively balanced statistics against the Jaspers. Stacey Benton '17 led the team in assists and digs with an impressive 37 assists to go along with a respectable 17 digs. Elisa Scudder '14 and Caridi each notched double digit kills to lead Dartmouth to victory.
On Saturday, the Big Green continued its remarkable hot streak, pushing it to five games by taking down the Providence Friars in four sets. Although the Big Green dropped the first set by a tight margin, it fought back valiantly taking the next three to set down the Friars.
In that match, Dartmouth's defense proved to be the crucial force driving them to victory, rejecting Providence's attempts to finish points while also standing tall at the net. Caridi and Harper both delivered standout performances once again, with Caridi notching a double-double between her kills and digs while Harper notched 19 digs.
"I think throughout the whole tournament we did a good job of our defense's intensity pushing and staying even with every team," Scudder said. "We had close scores throughout all the games and it shows we were really trying to get into the groove and keep on an even keel throughout all the matches."
Riding a hot streak into its final game of the tournament, the Big Green took on the Grand Canyon University Lopes on Saturday night. The game was the most dramatic of the entire tournament, as Dartmouth grappled with the Lopes for five sets before ultimately falling three sets to two.
Dartmouth took the first and third sets while Grand Canyon took the second and the fourth, setting up a decisive fifth set. Dartmouth seemed to have the edge going in to the fifth as they had won their sets far more emphatically than the Lopes had. In the fifth, Dartmouth fell behind early but battled back to tie it at 12 apiece after a kill by Lujan. Despite the comeback, Grand Canyon closed the match out by winning three of the final four points to take the match.
"It was weird because we crushed them in the first and third set, and in the other sets they were a totally different team," Lucia Pohlman '15 said. "We were making errors that prevented us from going on runs, getting ahead and gaining momentum. That match taught us that we had to be more reliable and consistent when the pressure's on us to make them make errors."
Although Dartmouth lost its final match, they finished the tournament in a three-way tie for first place. The tiebreaker was a point differential, which Dartmouth led by a total of 0.02 points over Grand Canyon.
Dartmouth also had two players named to the all-tournament team, with Caridi and Kornfeind earning individual honors.
The Big Green next takes to the court with a home tournament, on Sept. 20.
Staff writer Henry Arndt contributed reporting.
