Cambridge, Mass.--Volleyball opened up pool play in the MIT Invitational against Regis College and Springfield College on Friday night. The Ephs would split the matches, winning comfortablly against Regis 3-0 (25-12, 25-6, 25-13), before dropping a close match 3-1 against Springfield (20-25, 25-16, 25-13, 25-23).
Against Regis the Ephs were led by rookie outside hitter Raea Rasmussen, who had 7 of her team leading 10 kills in the first set alone. Rasmussen would commit only 1 error in the match in 18 attempts, leaving her with an extremely impressive hitting percentage of .500. Swinging away at the other outside hitter position was first year Claire Miller, who had 7 kills of her own, and hit .333. As a team Williams hit .338 for the match, and were never really threatened by Regis as they cruised to the 3 set victory. The Ephs had 8 aces, with three players: senior Aly McKinnon and juniors Lauren Agoubi and Haley Eagon each contributing a pair.
It would be a much different story against Springfield, currently ranked #2 in New England by the New England Women's Volleyball Association. Refusing to be intimidated by their opponents the Ephs jumped out to a 10-5 lead in set number one, capitalizing on three missed serves in a row by Springfield. The Pride would roar back, however, tying the match at 12-12. The Eph offense, already warm from their win against Regis, kept a steady pace throughout the set, and after battling back for the next succession of points Williams would take the first set 25-20.
Taken a bit aback, Springfield came out firing in set two, and the Eph offense, facing a much tougher block, struggled to adjust. Miller would still find the court for a team leading 11 kills, with sophomore Emily Baratta adding in 6 more. Rasmussen and sophomore Emily Doll would each contribute 5 more kills. As a team however, the Ephs hit only .086 for the match, a steep drop off. After allowing the Pride to jump out to a quick start a tough serving run by Rasmussen knotted the score at 12-12. From there Springfield would take over and close out the set with a 13-4 run, winning it 25-16. Set three would be more of the same as Springfield jumped out to leads of 5-1 and 12-6 as they cruised to the 25-13 victory.
In set four the Ephs pulled themselves together to play some of the most focused and committed volleyball of this young season. Defensively Williams began to shine, with many of their 10 total team blocks coming in the fourth set. Eagon led the way with 6 individual blocks, while Miller had 4. Rasmussen and classmate Emily O'Day had a further 3 apiece. Four Ephs had at least 5 digs, with Agoubi placing first on the team with 13, followed by McKinnon (9), Miller (9), and first year setter Amanda Schott (8). Schott would toss up a total of 66 assists (9.43 per set) in the two matches combined. Despite fighting hard, Springfield would outstretch the Ephs at the end, taking the deciding set 25-23.
Despite coming away with only one victory the team has a lot to be proud of following the night's performance. Noted first year Callie Kiernan: "Today we made a lot of progress in defining what we want 'Williams Volleyball' to look like." Added classmate Holly Harper, "We all stepped up tonight as a unit, and I'm looking forward to what the future holds." Tomorrow the Ephs will finish up the tournament in the silver bracket, facing Endicott College. The winner of that match will then go on to play the winner of Colby College vs. Frostburg State at 4:00.
