Traveling to Dartmouth and Harvard last weekend, the women’s volleyball team dropped its two away matches after starting each out with an early lead. The Red fell to Dartmouth, 2-3, after controlling the first two sets, and similarly lost, 1-3, to Harvard after leading in the first set of that match.
Against Dartmouth (12-3, 3-1 Ivy), the Red (3-10, 1-3 Ivy) came out with a two set lead after its 25-13 and 25-20 wins.
“It was disappointing because we came out with a ton of fire and energy and did awesome during those first two matches and did a lot of things we had been working on all week for Dartmouth. Then we just got to a point where maybe we were a little comfortable and we didn’t keep pushing as a team all together,” said sophomore middle back Alice Cope.
The Red kept up its intensity in the next three sets, but could not overcome the Big Green’s comeback.
“We still were pushing, but when Dartmouth started to push back, we needed to push even harder. We stayed with the same level of intensity when, being up two games, we should have pushed even harder. We needed to have more than that in order to combat the other team’s anger coming back at us,” Cope said.
Junior right side hitter Kelly Hansen stood out for Cornell with 19 kills during the match, two block-assists and only five errors. Leading in terms of hitting percentage, Cope hit .412 and tallied seven kills with no errors. Junior setter Jordan Reeder delivered 49 assists.
After losing its early lead against Harvard (5-11, 2-2), the Red struggled to overtake its competitor during the following three sets, coming close with scores of 25-23, 26-24 and 25-20.
“We came out with a lot of fire, and then Harvard made some adjustments based on the things we were doing well and we should have done a better job reacting to those adjustments they made. I think that was the main problem,” Cope said.
Harvard’s ability to make quick adjustments based on the Red’s strengths allowed the Crimson to power through and take the next three straight sets for the win.
With 12 kills and a .333 hitting percentage, four digs and five block assists, junior middle back Madeleine Przybyl led Cornell. Reeder and sophomore defensive specialist and Sun staff writer Taylor Nieman recorded 12 digs apiece for Cornell.
“We definitely have the ability, the energy and the teamwork, the skill everything to win, we just need to focus and push all together to ramp up the intensity at the end of the games,” Cope said.
Original Author: Laura Dwulet