Despite being seeded fifth out of eight teams at last weekend's University Athletic Association Championships at Washington University in St. Louis, the volleyball team's goal was to finish in at least third place, one spot better than its fourth-place finish at the 2007 UAA Championship. Instead, for the second year in a row, Brandeis fell to Carnegie Mellon University in the third-place match, resulting in another fourth-place finish in the conference for the Judges. Brandeis ends the season with a 19-13 record, including 5-6 in UAA play.

While the team had declared a few weeks ago its interest in competing in the Eastern College Athletic Conference Tournament, which the Judges have won the past two years, coach Michelle Kim said Brandeis withdrew from tournament contention this postseason. Kim said the health of the players was the primary reason for this decision.

The Judges had previously hoped to earn an NCAA Tournament bid, but Kim said last weekend that "the dream has gone away."

"Obviously it is disappointing when you don't reach your team goal," setter Abby Blasco '11 wrote in an e-mail. "However, with how the season went this year . I would say that coming out a higher seed [than] we were ranked [in the UAA] is respectable."

Brandeis opened the UAA tournament with a 3-0 loss to top-seeded Emory, 25-14, 25-12, and 27-25 last Friday.

The Judges were missing outside hitter Paige Blasco '11 for that match, which forced Brandeis to use a different lineup. Piera Carfagno '10, the team's usual right-side hitter, moved to the outside hitter position and Violette Ruggiero '09, the team's usual libero, played right-side hitter.

Even with the position change, Carfagno tied outside hitter Lorraine Wingenbach '09 for the team lead with nine kills.

"In a nutshell, it's a hard transition because I've never played outside [hitter]," Carfagno said. "[The ball comes at] a different angle."

Following the loss to Emory, Brandeis won a five-set match against Chicago, avenging an early-season loss to the Maroons. Brandeis took the first two sets 25-20 and 25-19 before Chicago evened the match with 25-22 victories in the next two sets.

During the fifth set, neither team took more than a one-point lead until Brandeis went up 24-22 to eventually capture the set and the match.

Brandeis fought off match points at 14-13, 18-17 and 19-18 before a Chicago error with the Maroons trailing 23-22 clinched the match for the Judges. Setter Abby Blasco '11 registered 55 assists, 13 digs and four blocks in the win.

"Especially late in the season, to have that kind of mental focus and that much fight left in us, I think that's pretty impressive for any team to be able to do that," Kim said.

Wingenbach's 15 kills and 16 digs helped propel Brandeis to a spot in the third-place match with a 25-15, 25-18, 29-27 win over Rochester last Saturday.

While Paige Blasco was active for the win against Chicago, she was unavailable for the match against Rochester. Without Blasco, Brandeis implemented the same lineup it did against Emory. Kim was particularly impressed with Carfagno's effort.

"[Carfagno's] been a trooper all season; she's been asked to do a lot of different things," Kim said. "It's a big adjustment to make . I appreciate the fact that she just accepts what she needs to do for the team."

In the third-place match, Brandeis was competitive in each set but fell 26-24, 25-21 and 27-25 to Carnegie Mellon. This is the second consecutive year the Tartans have lost to Brandeis in the UAA round-robin before rebounding to beat the Judges in the UAA tournament.

"The game was definitely close, but they came out with more energy, and they wanted the game more than we did," Abby Blasco wrote in an e-mail. "We had a hard time defending their hitters, and it translated into us not being able to form plays."

The Carnegie Mellon game was the final collegiate contest for Wingenbach, Ruggiero and reserve libero Danielle Friedman '09. Wingenbach holds the school record for kills and is second on the all-time digs list.

-Julie Ganz contributed reporting