Revenge was sweet for the Stony Bråook Seawolves, who after losing a fierce five-game match to the Bears on Sept. 19 in the Pizzitola Center, returned the favor in their own territory by sweeping the Bears on Saturday. The Bears, who went into the game after sweeping St. Francis on Friday, could not carry the winning momentum to the next day. The team lost its final match of the tournament to Xavier and had to settle for a 1-2 record for the weekend.
"We still played very hard, but we didn't play very well," Head Coach Diane Short said of Brown's performance at the Stony Brook Invitational.
The weekend started out on a good note for Bruno. In their rematch against St. Francis, the Bears repeated what they did on Sept. 13 in the Georgetown Classic by sweeping the Red Flash again, this time in a much more competitive game, 25-22, 25-23, 25-21.
"We had some momentum going into it from winning the Brown Invitational the past weekend," said libero Annika Gliottone '12, who had a strong defensive weekend, recording 36 digs overall. Even when St. Francis threatened to take the second game, the Bears held them back by staying determined and mentally tough, according to Gliottone.
But the win against St. Francis would prove to be the last victory for the Bears. The next day, they played back-to-back games against host Stony Brook and Xavier. As the host, the Seawolves looked to avenge their previous loss to the Bears in the Brown Invitational. They went after Brown right away, and the Bears faltered under the attack.
"They definitely played a strong game. We watched their Friday night game (against Xavier) and they looked really good," Gliottone said of the host who eventually won the tournament title with three sweeping victories. But the Bears also lost a little rhythm of their own.
"We did not play as well as we could have," Gliottone said. "We had some down moments. We tried a few things and they didn't work."
Despite the loss, Short said there is a lesson to be learned.
"We need to make sure we are prepared for teams that we beat in the past," Short said. "But this (rematch against Stony Brook) is good for us because we play double games in the Ivy League as well."
Captain Natalie Meyers '09 echoed these sentiments, emphasizing the importance of staying focused.
"It was good for us to face some tougher teams and be challenged," Meyers said. "(The losses) brought us back down and made us realize that it was not going to be an easy path."
In the final game against Xavier, the Bears tried to come back, but fell short in the first game, losing 25-14. They recovered in the second game and stormed back 26-24. In the end though, the Bears could not put down the ball and lost the final two sets 25-20 and 25-22, in part due to an injury to Glittone partway through the game.
"It was pretty tough," Glittone said of the loss. "We played better in this game but we still had some frustration from the game before. Xavier gave us a tough match."
The Bears will regroup for their final non-conference match against URI at 7 p.m. Wednesday at home, before starting the Ivy League season on Friday night against Yale.
