For the second year in a row, Lorraine Wingenbach '09 led the volleyball team to an Eastern College Athletic?Conference championship victory while earning the tournament Most Valuable Player. She was the clear choice for the award, leading all players in the final with 19 kills along with two service aces.Although the end result of the past two seasons might have been the same for Wingenbach, she was not running in place.

"I see things on the court a lot differently," she said. "Last year in ECACs I didn't really know where to place the ball, but over this season I've had more court awareness."

Her personal statistics reflect this improvement. This season, she had over 100 more kills and eight more service aces while helping the Judges set a school record for victories in a season.

In addition to being named the ECAC tournament MVP, Wingenbach was named to the All-New England first team, and also made the All-UAA second team.

Though the Judges did not reach their ultimate preseason goal of qualifying for the NCAA tournament, Wingenbach was still excited about continuing the season through the ECACs.

"I was extremely happy that we were the No. 1 seed," she said. "I think we deserved it because we had a really great season. Two years ago we didn't even make the ECACs, so we were happy to continue our season. We didn't want to end on a loss."

While the team's first ECAC championship last year did not propel the Judges to the NCAAs this season, Wingenbach believes the Judges can do it next year.

"We took really big steps toward[the NCAAs] by playing and beating some of the best teams in our region," she said. "We had an unbelievable season. Ultimately to make the NCAAs, we need to beat the [top teams,] so if we continue to work hard together we'll definitely be in the talks for the NCAAs.