For the second time this season, the women's volleyball team (8-16, 5-8) experienced both ends of a sweep in the same weekend. Once again, Columbia and Cornell were the two teams involved.
"We had a good game against Columbia last time and we were pretty confident going into the match" said Julie Mandolini-Trummel '08, who had nine kills and four blocks against Columbia.
Brown dominated the first game, winning 30-20, and never looked back. The Lions made the second game a little more interesting, but Brown held off the late surge to win 30-27. Bruno was rolling and took the third game for the sweep, winning 30-24.
"We played very well against Columbia," said Head Coach Diane Short. "They are a very young team with a lot of freshmen."
Lauren Gibbs '06 had a game-high 17 kills in the short match to lead Brown's offensive attack.
"I was a little nervous coming into this weekend because I sprained my ankle on Wednesday," Gibbs said. "I really wanted to play and I thought I only have another week to play. There was no stopping me. If I hurt my ankle again, I have the entire off-season to worry about that."
Rikki Baldwin '07 added 10 kills to keep the Bears on top. Elvina Kung '05 had a game high 20 digs and Rachel Lipman '08 helped out the team with 12 digs,
Leigh Martin '06 posted the team's only double-double with 43 assists and 10 digs, giving Brown three athletes with digs in the double digits.
"It was great to get the sweep against Columbia because we were able to get on the buses a lot earlier than expected and arrive at Cornell at a reasonable hour," Martin said.
In Ithaca on Saturday, Brown was trying to avenge a sweep at the hands of the Big Red from their first meeting, but this encounter ended much like the first.
Cornell took the first game by 10 points but Bruno battled back. In the second game, the Bears reached match point but couldn't convert the win. In extra time, Cornell took the second game 32-30.
"It was definitely a heartbreaker to lose the second game," Kung said. "This season, we've had some trouble closing out games."
Shawn Tulac '07, who connected on 10 kills, was similarly upset with the result of the second game.
"It was very frustrating to lose the second game, especially since we had been practicing all week to finish games," Tulac said. "We would keep the scoreboard on the sidelines at 29-27 and each team would try to finish."
In the third game, Cornell dominated the Bears by a score of 30-19 to capture the win, giving Cornell (16-8, 10-4 Ivy League) a share of the Ivy League Championship.
Defensively, Kung once again had a game-high mark in digs, with 14. Not far behind was Katie Lapinski '08 with nine.
Martin set the offense up with 31 assists and Gibbs once again led the team in kills with 16, giving her 33 kills for the weekend.
The Bears finish up their season on the road this Wednesday at Yale. Bruno took the first match of the season and hopes to duplicate their earlier performance, especially since the stakes are higher.
"Currently, there is a four way tie in the Ivy-League, which could be broken in the upcoming week," Short said. "Yale is one of the teams tied and we have the chance to be a spoiler if we can beat them again."
Kung echoed Short's feelings on Yale.
"I would really love to beat Yale and end on a good note," Kung said. "Yale has been surprising the league, but I would love to ruin their chances of an Ivy League title."
