Box Score Williamstown, MA - Williams College (10-4, 3-3 NESCAC) took on No. 14 Wesleyan University (12-1, 5-0 NESCAC) as the Cardinals sought revenge for their upset by the Ephs in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament last fall. In a five-set thriller, Williams came up just short and lost 3-2.
In the match-deciding fifth set, the Ephs got off to a slow start in falling behind 10-5. Senior
Celia Adams earned a point back for Williams with a hard-hit kill, but the Ephs could not build any momentum from it and lost the next three points heading into a last-ditch timeout down 13-6. Ultimately the deficit was just too large to overcome for Williams, as Wesleyan secured the fifth set 15-8.
The Ephs got off to a tremendous start in the first set, winning six of the first eight points to force an early Wesleyan timeout. From there, the Cardinals battled back to tie the score at 7-7 and 9-9 before Williams dashed ahead to pressure another Wesleyan timeout at 14-10. The Ephs used an all-around team effort to push ahead to 22-17, and with the Cardinals out of timeouts, it seemed the set was all but over. Nevertheless, Wesleyan pulled a five point run out of thin air and came back to tie the set at 22-22. Williams calmed their nerves though, and
Celia Adams and first year
Keely Campuzano came up with two pivotal kills to clinch the first set for the Ephs 25-22.
Down 6-0 to start the second set, the Ephs were never quite able to find their rhythm in the early going. A monstrous block from
Marit Hoyem pulled Williams within four of Wesleyan, then a kill from sophomore
Helen Qian narrowed the deficit to 17-14 heading into a timeout by the Cardinals. A wayward hit from Wesleyan later had the Ephs within one, where Williams emerged victorious from a marathon point to tie the score at 20-20. Wesleyan surged late though, and claimed the second set 25-22.Â
The third set started off well for the Ephs, with
Keely Campuzano and senior
Marit Hoyem each contributing two kills to lead Williams to an early 7-4 advantage. Although the Cardinals battled back to tie the score at 10-10, the Ephs went on a remarkable run to retake their lead and expand it to 20-12, with three kills each coming from
Keely Campuzano and
Helen Qian. A brief comeback attempt by Wesleyan did not rattle the Ephs, and
Helen Qian finished it off with a kill to secure the third set 25-21 for Williams.Â
The Ephs were on top to start the fourth set, with a litany of Wesleyan errors contributing to an early 10-5 lead for Williams. The Cardinals quickly got back into the thick of it though, and threatened to tie the score at several points before they finally did at 16-16. A timeout got the Ephs back on their right footing, however, and a service ace from senior
Lauren Kauppila forced Wesleyan to call a timeout of their own, suddenly down 21-17. Up 23-20 a few points later, the Ephs were on the verge of winning the match but Wesleyan somehow responded with five points in a row to steal the fourth set 25-23.
Wesleyan leaders were: sophomore Sophia Lindus with 23 kills, junior Maya Lopansri with 38 assists, and senior Bianca Ortiz with 16 digs. Williams leaders were:
Marit Hoyem,
Celia Adams,
Keely Campuzano, and
Helen Qian with 14 kills each,
Lauren Kauppila with 54 assists, and junior
Sidra Wohlwend with 18 digs.Â
Reflecting on the tough loss to their Little Three rival, Eph head coach
Christi Kelsey commented, "I don't think we approached this match any different, the NESCAC is full of teams like this, and I know right now Wesleyan is the number one team in our conference and there's a lot of great things about what they can do. For us, we took some lessons from last week and I was really proud of how the team performed in practice, and it was a battle tonight. We played probably our best volleyball tonight, and maybe it got away from us a little bit at the end, but I'm really proud of what we're continuing to build off of!"
The Ephs will be back in action at home against Trinity College on Saturday, October 7th at 1:00 PM in Chandler Gymnasium.
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