It wasnโt a pristine finish to volleyballโs season, but a sixth-place showing at the UAA tournament this weekend has the Maroons two spots up from last year, with more reason for optimism in this young teamโs future.
Chicago (19โ17, 4โ7 UAA) finished 1โ3 on the weekend, defeating Rochester before falling to Brandeis (19โ13, 5โ5), Emory (30โ6, 10โ1), and Case (20โ14, 5โ6). Wash U (30โ6, 10โ1) won the conference title for the third time in five years.
โI donโt think our play really correlates with how we finished. I thought we played really well,โ head coach Vanessa Walby said. โI donโt think weโre a team that people in the UAA are overlooking anymore like maybe they used to. I think they know that theyโre going to get a tough, competitive match when they step on the floor with Chicago.โ
The Maroons started pool play against eighth-seeded Rochester, a team looking to avoid its first winless conference season since 2002, when the Yellowjackets went 0โ7.
Last season, the tournamentโs seventh-place game came down to two winless teams in Chicago and Rochester. This year, however, the Maroons entered the day looking to distance themselves from the bottom, and a 25โ21, 25โ13, 25โ20 win had the South Siders started on the right track.
Chicagoโs October 19 meeting with Rochester saw the Maroons defeat the Yellowjackets in four games, but a more polished performance by Chicago gave way to the three-game sweep on Friday. Riding a .375 hitting percentage, the Maroons overpowered the Yellowjackets throughout the contest, outclassing a team whose last UAA win came on November 3, 2007.
โOur girls passed pretty well, we served aggressively at them, and offensively, we ran a lot of different combinations at them,โ head coach Vanessa Walby said. โI think the girls were pretty excited to play and were pretty focused on playing, so I know that they tried to use that as a good match to prepare and get ready for Brandeis.โ
Unable to carry the momentum into the second game, however, Chicago was stifled early against a defensively sharp Brandeis team, as the fifth-seeded Judges took the first two games of the afternoon.
โWe were close with them the first few games, but we just werenโt able to close,โ Walby said. โWe started out with some deficits that were hard to dig ourselves out of. I think the girls did a good job of kind of regrouping and coming back; itโs really hard to come back when youโre down 2โ0 and force a fifth game, and the girls did a great job of doing that and staying competitive.โ
Chicago countered with strong defense of its own in the next two games, as four Maroons finished the game with at least 20 digs. First-year outside hitter Isis Smalls also set a team season-high in kills with 21.
Tying the game 2โ2, the Maroons forced a back-and-forth fifth game, with neither team able to hold the momentum long enough to seal the win. Although Chicago had a few opportunities to finish the Judges, the gameโs end came on a back-row attack violation called against the South Siders, closing out Brandeisโ 25โ20, 25โ19, 22โ25, 22โ25, 24โ22 win.
โBrandeis was playing great defense. Nothing was really hitting the floor, and it was really scrappy, and when itโs scrappy volleyball, itโs really hard to play against because itโs like a ping-pong match of everything just bouncing aroundโitโs not very structured or organized,โ Walby said. โI think our girls got some great touches, handled some things, stayed aggressive. Unfortunately, we werenโt able to get a ball to drop on their side, which is hats off to Brandeis.โ
An exhausting Friday gave way to Chicagoโs toughest test of the weekend, a Saturday meeting with top-seeded Emory.
โEmory is the number one team in the nation right now, and this weekend they looked like the number one team in the nation,โ Walby said.
A flat start left the Maroons struggling to climb back into the game, a tall order for a young team against an Emory squad that boasts two UAA championships in the past three seasons. It didnโt help that the Eagles boast one the conferenceโs biggest rosters, with five players listed at six feet or above.
โWe just couldnโt pass, and when we could pass, they had a huge block on us and our hitters really couldnโt do much,โ Walby said. โWe really couldnโt get them out of system very much.โ
The Maroons mounted a small comeback in the third game, with better serving and passing, but it was too late to avoid a loss, as the Eagles took a 25โ13, 25โ14, 25โ20 victory.
Coming out of pool play with a 1โ2 record, Chicago was matched up against sixth-seeded Case in a match for fifth-place. A five-game loss to Case on October 18 had the Maroons hungry for a win against a well-matched Spartan squad.
After a rough showing against Emory, the South Sidersโ defense returned to the form that the team displayed Friday afternoon against Brandeis. First-year libero Liane Rousseau recorded a school-record 38 digs while Smalls tallied 16 kills on a team season-high 46 attempts. Still, a back-and-forth contest saw the Spartans emerge in the fifth game, taking fifth place with a 24โ26, 25โ19, 19โ25, 25โ22, 15โ13 win.
โCase was an exceptionally hard loss because we had already lost to them previously in five,โ Rousseau said. โIt was a revenge match for us, and again, could have gone either way. The team just wasnโt able to close.โ
The Maroons were not ecstatic with their sixth-place finish, but the young squad also knows its accomplishments for the season and its high potential for improvement next year. Chicagoโs 19 wins for the year are the programโs most since 2004.
Chicago graduates just three players after this season but will need its young roster to fill the void in talent and leadership left by middle hitters Kerry Dornfeld and Katie Volzer and setter Nikki Boddicker. After this weekend, Boddicker closes her career with the Maroonsโ record for career assists with 3,155, while Volzer finishes her career fifth on the schoolโs all-time kills list with 827.
Still, Walby is confident that her squad, which featured strong contributions this season from a plethora of first-years, will move into the top half of the conference next year.
โItโs obvious that weโre on the right track when last year we won seven games and this year we won 19,โ she said. โTheyโre moving in the right direction, and I donโt think this is something that theyโre going to settle with.โ