Though the volleyball squad ended its season with tough losses to Harvard on Friday night, 3-0, and Dartmouth on Saturday, 3-2, both matches were punctuated by outstanding performances from its graduating seniors.
Rikki Baldwin '07, Victoria Kasten '07 and co-captains Jessica Kondrick '07 and Shawn-Elyse Tulac '07 were honored over the weekend in their last appearances for the Bears.
The match against Harvard on Friday night was expected to be a battle, with the Crimson looking for revenge after Brown had won the previous meeting on Oct. 14 in Cambridge, Mass.
"Last time they didn't play very well, so we knew that this game would be a challenge," Kondrick said. "Things didn't go as planned for us. Individual players did well, but on the whole we couldn't bring it together."
Though they fought the entire night, the Bears dropped the first game 30-26. Brown jumped out to the early lead on Harvard but could not hold off a late Crimson rally. Following the first game's pattern, Brown again maintained the early lead in the second game but the Crimson eventually won 32-30.
"Even after we lost the first two games, we still thought we could pull it out," said Katie Lapinski '08. "We fought, but obviously it didn't work out for us."
In the third game, the Bears quickly fell into a 13-point deficit at 24-11. Bruno staged an impressive comeback, bringing the score to 28-26 by going on a 15-4 run. But it was too little, too late, as the Crimson won the next two points to end the game and match with a sweep.
"It ended way too quickly," Kondrick said.
Though the final score was not indicative of the way Brown played, the Bears put up some impressive numbers. Lapinski led the squad with 23 digs, followed by Lyndse Yess '09 with 15 and Rachel Lipman '08 and Natalie Meyers '09 with 11 apiece. Baldwin created some fire on offense, leading the Bears with 14 kills, while Julie Mandolini-Trummel '08 recorded 10 kills and seven blocks, five of them solo.
However, every time the Bears made a run, Harvard dug a little deeper and thwarted the Bears' comeback.
Following Friday night's loss, the team tried to regroup for the final game of the season against Dartmouth.
"Our coach (Diane Short P'09) basically told us, 'You know what it takes to win, just fake it until you make it,' meaning fake the energy and enthusiasm until you pull it out," Kondrick said. "We knew what we needed to do to win and we had to go in and do it."
Before the game, the four seniors were honored for their final match, but all the pomp and circumstance did little to stop Brown's losing skid, which began with a 3-0 loss to the Big Green on Oct. 13.
"We put all of our anger and frustration at Friday night's loss into our performance on Saturday," Lapinski said. "We fought really well and had fun out there."
The game turned out to be far more dramatic than earlier losses, as the Bears fought hard in a back-and-forth five-game match.
"Personally, every point in that game could have been my last," Tulac said. "So I gave it all I had. I think the general feeling in that game was that there was no pressure and we should just give it our best - why not?"
The Bears took the early lead with a 30-27 win in the opening game after a four-point scoring blitz put them up for good at 24-21. The next two games were also close, with the Bears clawing back to tie the game at 28-28. Dartmouth, however, broke the stalemate to take the game 30-28 due in part to a pair of Brown attack errors.
The third game was the toughest of the afternoon, as Brown fell behind 7-1 early and ultimately lost 30-21. But the fourth game showed the Bears would not go down without a fight. They built a 15-6 lead only to see the Big Green lock the score at 22-22. The Bears then went on a scoring rampage, winning nine of the next 11 points to seal a 30-23 victory.
As the final match of the season came down to the tie-breaking fifth game, it was only fitting that the battle went to the very end, with the seniors fighting to walk away from their final game with a win. But Brown dropped the final game 15-12. The Bears could not upend the Big Green despite strong performances from Baldwin, who had 26 kills and a .346 hitting percentage, and Tulac, who record 15 kills and 14 digs. Kondrick also went out with a bang, notching five blocks, eight kills and a .368 hitting percentage. Kasten, meanwhile, closed out her career with nine kills on the night.
"The great part of it was that we kept fighting," Tulac said. "This one we fought until the last point, which makes me very happy."
Although the matches did not pan out as the Bears had hoped, team members remain positive about what they left on the court and those who will be missed on it next year.
"I love all of our seniors," Lapinski said. "They offered the team lots of personality and strength on the court, and they really gave the underclassmen a lot to look up to. We have had such fun times together, both on and off the court, and they will all be greatly missed."
