All seasons, good or bad, must come to an end. With the season winding down, the Brandeis women's volleyball team headed down to Atlanta this past weekend to take on their UAA foes for the last four games of the 2004 season. The Judges showed much improvement despite coming up short all four games and ending their season with a winless record in conference play. The team stepped up their play for these UAA matches, knowing that this tournament would not be like the previous round robins, and the increased intensity shined through in the Judges' play. Brandeis closed out its season with a tough loss to the University of Chicago. The Judges lost to the Maroons in five hard fought games this time, which showed a lot of improvement from their three-game sweep and loss to the Maroons earlier in the season. The Judges dropped the first game by a close 30-28 but came roaring back to win the next two, each by the same score of 30-20. However, the Maroons refused to roll over as they came back to win the next two games 34-32 and 15-9.

"This was our best match all weekend," Coach Michelle Kim said. "We had lots of momentum in the second and third games and we needed to win it in the fourth, but they took it away from us and got an early lead in the fifth game. When a team takes an early lead, it's tough to come back."

"We were communicating and trusting each other more so than in the past," Katie Wrynn '08 said. "We didn't let go and we came together defensively and offensively."

The Judges took on three teams during the first day of competition before dropping their last bout to the Maroons. The team faced the always-tough University of Rochester Yellow Jackets in their last match of the day on Friday. Like the match againast the Maroons, this too was a nail-biter that came down to the fifth and final game. The Judges took the first two games 30-21 and 30-25, but were unable to hold on for the final three as the Yellow Jackets came back to beat the Judges 30-28, 31-29 and 16-14. Again, the extraordinarily close match versus the Yellow Jackets showed vast improvement for the Judges, who had dropped three games in a row to Rochester earlier in the season.

"We went point for point the whole match," Kim said. "It was a tough game to lose because it could have been anyone's game; we blocked well, dug well and passed well."

The Judges took on the nationally ranked New York University Violets before facing off against the Yellow Jackets. The Violets swept the Judges for the second time in a row this season; however this time the scores were notably closer as the Violets just managed to edge the Judges 30-21, 30-22 and 30-19.

Before getting swept by NYU, the Judges took on Washington University in their first match of their last tournament of the season. Like NYU, the Bears swept the Judges for the second time this season. The Judges dropped the bout by close scores of 30-23, 30-22 and 30-16.

"We played them much tougher than we did in the round robin," Kim said. "Although we lost in three we were able to put a lot more pressure on them and we were able to score more points against them this time."

Although the Judges finish their season below the .500 mark with a 14-19 record, they are happy to go out on a high note, as before last weekend the Judges had not won more than two consecutive games in UAA matches and had only gone to five games just once all season. The Judges showed a lot of improvement this weekend as they went to five matches with two consecutive teams and won four games.

"I think we were most improved going into this weekend," Kim said. "Although we didn't win any matches, we peaked this weekend, everything fell into place. We picked up a lot of balls, sent a lot of balls back, we did the little things well and we just worked better as a team."

Although the Judges fell short, the team was determined to improve heading into this weekend.

"Everyone was determined to do whatever it took to win," Shannon Trees '08 said. "We succeeded but we just fell a little bit short."

The 2004 volleyball season is over for the Judges and the team will lose their three captains, Shannon Eagan '05, Becca Segal '05 and Jen Lobban '05 to graduation. Though it will be extremely tough for Kim to fill their shoes, she has a lot of faith in her younger players that saw playing time this season.

"We do have some recruiting to do," Kim said. "But I feel good about the fact that our younger players got a lot of playing time and experience."

With their losing record, the Judges are out of the running for any postseason action. Although they did not win any games this weekend, the team is very happy with the improvement they saw in their play.

"It has been a roller coaster season," Kim said. "But I'm glad we peaked at the end and went out on a high note.