Bulldogs search for more than moral victories

By Dan Brodhead

In recent years, Yale women's volleyball has become something of an institution. The team has averaged 20 wins in the last five seasons and has had a winning record in Ivy League play over the last nine. The Bulldogs have also reached the post-season tournament during the last three years. Not too shabby, eh? This year is not much different; The Bulldogs are strong once again, and have shown their usual dominance. Yet some recent games have slipped away. Late in the season, with ranking for the impending NCAA tournament at stake, this is a dangerous trend indeed.

JULIA TIERNAN/YH Spikes like this one will be crucial against the Crimson.

On Wed., Oct. 28, the women's volleyball team traveled to nearby Fairfield for a match that they knew would be a challenge. After three close games, the Elis met defeat at the hands of the notoriously hard-hitting Fairfield squad. "We knew that they'd be a tough team," Lesley Coben, BK '00, said. "The rallies were quick and to the point because Fairfield puts the ball away better than any team we've faced this year." Yale played well, but this late in the season, a moral victory won't cut it. Even though the perennially successful volleyballers are in the midst of another strong season, their work is cut out for them for the rest of the year; they simply need to win.

The loss to Fairfield can be chalked up to a lack of confidence. "I think we didn't expect to beat Fairfield," Sarahliz Braugh, JE '99, said after the loss. "We went in with the goal of playing well and having that be enough. That was the problem. We should have expected nothing less than a win. It's too late in the season to let close games slip by." Coben agreed. "We played as if hanging tough with their hard-hitting pace would be good enough. From now on we need to be more fired up," she said.

The 1998 campaign has been marked by steady improvement, though the team is still working on blocking, defense, and the technical aspects of its game. Many players have contributed to Yale's solid play. Braugh leads the team in sets with an average of 10.72 a game. Elizabeth Collister, BK '02, averages 1.25 blocks a game. Coben has 3.29 digs per game and 2.26 kills. And team captain Rosie Wustrack, BK '99, averages an awesome 3.90 kills a game. Wustrack may be the first player in Ivy League history to be named player of the year for three consecutive years. Clearly, Yale's success comes from a team effort. In the early going the Elis were dominant, winning the Yale Invitational and crushing a series of fairly weak opponents. A West Coast trip was a notable exception to the Bulldogs' winning ways as they came out 0-3, losing matches to Santa Clara, San Jose State, and San Francisco. But as the season progressed and the competition improved the Elis too raised their level of play. "We've definitely made impressive progress since the beginning of the season," Coben said. "If our team as it is now played our team at the beginning of the season, our present team would definitely win."

But Yale will need to continue these improvements as the rest of the season promises to be a doozy. This weekend, the Bulldogs face Harvard and Dartmouth in matches that will affect postseason rankings. Currently, Yale is 3-2 in the league and is in the middle of the pack and at approximately the same level they were at this time last year. "Both Harvard and Dartmouth are strong teams," Braugh said. "We're confident, but it's tough to predict how the weekend will turn out." According to Coben, the Dartmouth match promises to be a defensive battle featuring long rallies. In contrast, Harvard's game revolves around a hard-hitting style much like that of Fairfield. "We're in the middle of the pack right now and it's a big jump to the top," Coben said. "But it's by no means impossible. We just have to do it." Nike's Phil Knight would be proud. And two victories this weekend would send the Bulldogs well on their way.

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