Elis defeat top-ranked Cornell

By Tamar Schwartz

Things were not looking good for the Yale volleyball team last Friday night. The Elis had just been defeated in a close game against Columbia, making it their eighth loss in the past nine games. A loss to Columbia also meant the team was winless in the Ivy League—a grim prospect when the team thought about Saturday's opponent: then first-ranked Cornell.

However, the Bulldogs staged a comeback that surprised both the league and themselves by defeating the Big Red in a solid, 3-0 effort (30-23, 30-25, 30-25). The difference in Saturday's game, according to Taryn Gallup, SM '04, was the "complete team effort all game. Everyone was at the top of their game throughout." Captain Carissa Abbott, SM '02, attributed the win to the team's "focused and determined" games. "We weren't going to let them back into the game when we got ahead," she said.

PANO KALOGEROPOULOS/YH After dropping a tough match to Columbia, the volleyball team rebounded against Cornell to post its first Ivy League win of the season.

Playing a day after the heartbreaking Columbia loss (3-2), Gallup insists that the team made an extra effort to be enthusiastic and energized for the game. Abbott added that the team was focused on beating Cornell. "We weren't even thinking about Columbia," she noted.

Still, the lingering taste of struggle was fresh on their minds. Most frustrating, according to Gallup, was the lack of problems on which to blame Yale losses. "We played well in our games and couldn't pinpoint what was wrong and why we were losing," she said.

Perhaps the team might attribute its last-place standing in the Ivies to increased competition and level of play within the league. Yale's conference record is a disappointing 1-7, while its record outside the Ivies is a respectable 6-3. Gallup notes that this year, mediocre teams have improved, and the new competitive spirit within the league "threw the team for a loop." In a league dominated for the past decade by Brown and Princeton, the two team are now ranked second and fifth respectively, leaving room for other teams to climb the Ivy ranks.

Despite the reasons for the Bulldogs' season slump, it is apparent that the losing streak "took a toll on team morale," according to Gall-up. But Abbott insists that the team refused to give up; practices remained rigorous and methodical, with the Bulldogs focusing on the technicalities of the game and active playing.

Saturday's win against Cornell was a "major turning point" for the team, Abbott noted. The satisfaction of a win against the top-seeded Ivy team was "the extra boost we needed," Gallup said. "It was the affirmation that we do have the talent to win." She also noted that the victory against the Big Red brought about renewed team cohesion and a much-needed energy boost at a point in the season where it is often easy to give up.

The win against Cornell showed the struggling Bulldogs "what it takes to win and how good it feels when it all works together. Getting the win was a hump we needed to get over," she said.

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