The volleyball team may not have been completely satisfied with its homecoming performance, but it did at least one-up the football team, winning one of its two matches this weekend. Cornell (6-11, 3-3 Ivy) bested Brown (4-12, 0-5 Ivy), 3-1, on Saturday, but was not as successful on Friday night, losing to a tough Yale squad (14-2, 4-1 Ivy) in straight sets, 3-0.

Both matches showcased the high level of play the Red is capable of achieving, although not necessarily for sustained periods of time. Against defending Ivy League champion Yale, Cornell took early leads in the first two sets, but then always allowed its opponent to make up the difference. The Bulldogs won both sets very narrowly, 26-24 and 25-23, a testament to the Red’s refusal to back down, if not its ability to finish.

“We played really well,” said head coach Sarah Bernson. “Unfortunately, I think we surprised ourselves at how [effectively] we played. We should have closed out those two sets.”

The sentiment was echoed strongly by senior co-captain and libero Megan Mushovic. “We should have won the first two sets,” she said. “We were up [in both]. We need to learn how to close.”

strongly by senior co-captain and libero Megan Mushovic. “We should have won the first two sets,” she said. “We were up [in both]. We need to learn how to close.”Splitting the difference: Sophomore Kelly Hansen (4) and freshman Lucy Zheng (5) look on as a duo from Brown attempts the block. The Red defeated the Bears on Saturday, 3-1, after a tough loss Yale the night before. This is the third weekend in a row that the Red has split.

In the first set, the Red actually out-hit the Bulldogs, .220 percent to .186 percent, and freshman outside hitter Deveney Pula tallied four kills, four digs and three blocks. In the second set, the Red rallied from a 16-10 deficit to tie the score at 19.

Given the hard-fought nature of the first two sets, the Bulldogs must have been pleasantly surprised by the different Red squad that showed up to play in the third.

“We lost a lot of our momentum,” Mushovic said, “It was unfortunate.”

Yale grabbed an early lead, forcing a Red timeout, and then increased the margin to eight (18-10), forcing head coach Sarah Bernson to call her team in for another huddle. While the home crowd was doubtless praying for another late rally to keep the match alive, in the end it did not materialize and Yale scored six of the final seven points to complete the sweep in style, 25-14.

Pula finished the match with nine kills, ten digs, three blocks and two aces, while senior co-captain and middle blocker Juliana Rogers added six kills and four blocks. Sophomore setter Jordan Reeder led the team in assists (23) while Mushovic notched 16 digs.

Mushovic said that despite the final score, the team played well for a majority of the match, forcing the Bulldogs to adjust to the Red’s pacing and game plan.

“Yale was not happy with the way they played,” Bernson said.

Ultimately, the Red was right there with the Bulldogs every step of the way in the first two sets. The match was Cornell’s to win or lose.

“We need to fix things on our side of the net,” Mushovic said. “We made Yale hit where they didn’t want to hit. We made them move around, and a lot of teams have not been able to do that this year.”

In a reverse of the previous night’s results, it was Cornell that took the two-set lead in Saturday’s match, with game scores of 25-16 and 25-21, respectively. Unwilling to go home quite so soon, however, the Red then allowed the Bears to grab a set win of its own, 25-17.

Brown capitalized on its momentum to start the fourth set, jumping out to an impressive lead, aided partially by a decrease in intensity and focus on the part of the Red. “We tried a couple of different rotations, and we just got a little too comfortable,” Mushovic said. Brown was sitting pretty at 19, with Cornell trailing by eight.

This seemed to finally be the wake-up call the Red needed.

“Everybody just took a collective breath,” Bernson said. “It calmed the team down.”

Rogers and Pula scored a key pair of kills and Brown added a pair of errors to make the score 20-15. A second string of kills, followed by a Mushovic ace brought the Red to within one and back from the dead.

The comeback “really made a strong statement about our playing ability,” Bernson said. “I’m really proud of the way we fought back. They identified what they needed to do, and they fought.”

Pula finished the match with 11 total kills, while junior outside hitter Alessa Cekauskas earned nine kills and sophomore middle blocker Kelly Hansen added eight more. Freshman Lucy Zheng got the start in the setter position and responded with a career-high 36 assists. Mushovic led the team with 24 digs.

Next weekend the team will face another tough team at the start of a doubleheader, when the Red travel to Pennsylvania to take on top-ranked Penn. Cornell will need to come out strong and confident in order to avoid yet another split (or 0-2) weekend.

“Yale was a formidable challenge,” Bernson said. “It was one that we should have had more confidence that we could beat.”

The experience of the first two sets against the Bulldogs, which the Red very realistically could have won, may supply some of that essential confidence and early motivation, she said.

The Red will not be afforded any sort of grace period by the aggressive Quakers.

“I think we need to have that sense of urgency in the beginning,” Mushovic said. “We can’t afford to have a loss be our motivation. We don’t have any more losses to give.”