Returning home after split results on the road this weekend, the women’s volleyball team fell to Yale in straight sets, 3-0, before overpowering Brown, 3-1.Cornell (4-11, 2-4 Ivy League), was overwhelmed by the Bulldogs’ strong offence and let Yale (10-7, 4-2) take the match in three consecutive sets, 25-13, 25-17 and 25-13.“We just weren’t quite prepared to go out there and play according to our game plan. Yale did a good job of exposing our weaknesses and we were a little bit slow to adapt,” said Jordan Reeder. With her .500 hitting percentage, eight kills and two block assists, junior middle blocker Kelly Hansen led Cornell. 22 of the Red’s 24 kills were assisted by setter Jordan Reeder. Yet the Bulldogs boasted a tough offense, with three of their players knocking 10 or more hits over Yale’s side of the net. Compared to the Red’s 24 kills hit during the match, Yale tallied nearly double this amount with a total of 47 kills. “They did run a pretty good offense, but a lot of it was in part to mistakes on our part, blocking-wise and defensively. We allowed them to get into a run with their offense,” said Erin McCarthy.Traveling next to Providence, the Red’s second stop of the weekend at Brown (6-12, 0-6) proved more successful. After dropping the first set, Cornell controlled the match and took the next three sets for the win. The Bears earned a narrow 25-23 win in the first set. Brown reacted to the Red’ s early lead with a solid run of points, jumping to a 12-7 lead during the first set. Cornell and Brown swapped points before the Bears grabbed the win after an attack error by Cornell. Bouncing back from the defeat in the first set, Cornell remained aggressive and overtook the home team 25-18, 26-24 and 25-28. “The momentum was so much on our side even at the end of the game [first set] that all we really had to do in the second set was to keep up the momentum. The loss really wasn’t quite as important as the momentum it gave us,” Reeder said. Going into the second set of the match, the Red remained energetic and prepared to challenge Brown’s lead.“We were still pretty confident even after losing the first one. We didn’t come out very strong in the beginning of the first set, but we ended pretty strong, so I don’t think anyone was nervous. It gave us momentum going into the second set,” McCarthy said. During the nerve-wracking third set, both teams were locked in eight ties including a 24-24 tie near the end before Cornell wrapped up the win. “We let them have a couple runs early on the set, and they ended up with game point when we were down 24-21, so we had to fight back and ended up gaining a lot of momentum in those last couple points of the third set,” McCarthy said. Going down to the wire for this third set win, the Red had to fight for every point it earned. “During those last 10 points we made a conscious decision that we were going to fight tooth and nail for every point and, no matter what happened, we were going to go out taking big swings and staying aggressive,” Reeder said. Leading the defense for the Red, sophomore libero Taylor Nieman tallied 23 digs. Erin McCarthy and Janel Forte each notched 16 kills, along with 10 digs from McCarthy during the match. Reeder registered 41 assists, six digs, two kills and eight block assists. Next up, the Red will play a string of home games, starting with a non-conference match against Syracuse tomorrow.“Everyone is very optimistic with how we preformed at Brown, and it’s shown that we can be very competitive and we can fight very hard even when games get close,” Reeder said.
Original Author: Laura Dwulet