The Brandeis volleyball team (2-5 UAA, 25-10) won the Judges Classic this weekend for its second tournament victory of the season. Brandeis did not lose a game this weekend, defeating all three of its opponents: Plymouth State College, Eastern Connecticut State University and St. Joseph's College, 3-0.
Brandeis began the tournament on Friday against Plymouth State College (27-6) with a 30-16, 30-20, 30-24 victory. Jen Lobban '05 had an excellent overall match, leading the Judges with 10 kills and adding nine digs. Co-captain Marni Kutok '03 also had an outstanding overall game with seven kills and led the way on defense with 13 assists. Jenna Polinsky '06 and Co-captain Isabel de Koninck '04 tied for second with 12 kills each. Shannon Eagan '05 added 28 assists and two services aces.
"I think the team played the best against Plymouth State," Lobban said. "We knew they were ranked higher than us in New England, so we were out to beat them from the beginning. We were all excited to play and we just got on the court, determined to win the match in three," she said.
On Saturday morning, the Judges faced St. Joseph's College (7-21) in their easiest match of the tournament, a 30-20, 30-19, 30-18 romp. Kutok led the way on offense and defense, leading the team with kills with 12 and 11 digs. Tiffany Wos '06 had a solid game of nine kills and three service aces, while Eagan racked up 29 more assists.
In their final match of the tournament, the Judges faced a familiar foe in Eastern Connecticut State (14-19). The Judges faced ECSU on Oct. 11 in the finals of the Crabtree Tournament at ECSU. Although Brandeis defeated Eastern Connecticut 3-1 on their home court to the Crabtree Tournament,' the match was a calose one: 30-32, 30-21, 30-20, 30-10. ECSU was looking for revenge against Brandeis, hoping to spoil the Judge's tournament by defeating them in the finals at home just as Brandeis had done to them three weeks ago.
But Brandeis was not about to be upset, beating ECSU 30-18, 30-23, 30-19. Kutok again led the Judges on offense and defense with 12 kills and 16 digs to cap off an outstanding tournament, and Wos had another strong game with 11 kills and 10 digs. Eagan had her best performance of the weekend with 31 assists and four service aces.
This weekend was the completion of New England play for the Judges, where they were an astounding 18-5. But with just one tournament remaining in their season, Brandeis must return to the part of its schedule which has given the most difficulty: the UAA tournaments.
The UAA features three nationally-ranked teams, Washington University, Emory University and New York University. All of these teams have beaten the Judges this season. This weekend's tournament helped prepare the Judges in that it gave them real matches to play but not in terms of the level of competition.
"These teams are nowhere near the competition we see in the UAA, so the tournament doesn't really prepare us for next weekend," Becca Segal '05 said. "At the same time, last weekend's Hall of Fame Tournament provided good competition for us, as it featured the best teams in New England. It is not as if we have not played challenging teams in recent history," she said.
Despite the level of competition, the Judges did get to work on at least one very important skill.
"The weekend was helpful for us to continue playing together in 'real matches,'" Lobban said.
Going into the UAA Championships, the Judges know they will have to play their absolute best in order to win. But the team is really playing well together and has had a very good overall season.
Now they will get the chance to show what they are made of against some of the best teams in the country. At the very least, the Judges hope to avenge their previous UAA showing in the UAA Round Robin at the University Rochester. There, they lost to WashU, NYU, Rochester and Carnegie Mellon University on Oct. 18-19.
"We are hoping to do well in the UAA championship tournament, and hopefully can avenge a previous loss against teams like Rochester," Segal said.
Lobban believes in a simple strategy that will help the Judges achieve their goal.
"I am sure that if we play to the best of our ability and remain focused, we will fair better than the last UAA in Rochester," she said.
The strongest team the Judges will face next weekend is the WashU Bears (28-3 overall, 7-0 UAA). The Bears have been highly successful in recent years, winning seven national titles since 1989. Last year, WashU finished second at the Division-III volleyball final four, leaving the team hungry for a title this season.
The Bears, currently ranked second in the nation, are led by coach Rich Luenemann. He is in his fourth year with WashU where he has racked up 138 wins and just 22 losses. His career record is 590-262 and he was elected to the National Intercollegiate Hall of Fame in 1996.
WashU is anchored by several very talented players. Sophomore Kara Leifer leads the team in assists with 11.34 per game, senior Katie Quinn leads the team with 1.04 blocks per game and junior Colleen Winter is tops with 3.05 kills per game.