Panthers’ volleyball kept the ball rolling on this past weekend’s road trip, extending its winning streak to six games and improving its overall record to 9-2 on the season. Having started the week off on the right foot with a Wednesday win over St. Michael’s, the team spent four sets taking care of NESCAC foe Hamilton in Friday’s matchup (21-25, 25-16, 25-20, 25-15), notching its first win in conference play this year. After that, Middlebury cleaned up at the Skidmore Classic on Saturday, taking down Ramapo College in five sets and Sage College in four.
Friday’s conference win was not without drama, however, as the Panthers had to scramble to get ready in New York after a late arrival threw off their warm-up schedule. Coincidentally, during the 2014 season Hamilton arrived in Middlebury about about three hours late, and went on to top the Panthers, 3-1. Facing similar circumstances, Middlebury was angling to turn the tables this time around.
Yet at the beginning, the Panthers seemed to be unsettled by the hectic rush to get ready. They came out of the gates slowly, dropping the first set 21-25 to the Continentals. However, setter Hannah Blackburn ’17 credits what happened next to the team’s tenacity and ability to refocus.
“I think we sometimes take a little bit of time to get going,” Blackburn said. “But this weekend (and in our other games) the good takeaway is that we have that mental endurance to bounce back,” she added.
The Panthers certainly didn’t let their slow start dictate the rest of the match; they quickly found their groove, ripping off victories in the next three sets by decisive margins of nine, five and ten points, respectively.
As a team, Middlebury scored its highest hitting percentage of the year, putting up a .381 (compared to Hamilton’s .214). Outside hitter Becca Raffel ’18 led both sides with 17 kills and pushed her season total to 160 over the weekend, good for tops in the NESCAC. Isabel Sessions ’19, also an outside hitter, added 14 kills. Blackburn, the team’s starting setter, poured in 40 assists on Friday; she sits second in the conference with 9.51 assists per set. Lastly, middle blocker Melanie English ’17 continued her strong play at the net this season with a pair of blocks. She is currently tied for the NESCAC lead with 1.12 blocks per set.
Looking forward, the Panthers will try to keep up their road success as they face NESCAC foes Trinity (3-6 overall, 0-3 conference) and Wesleyan (4-5, 1-2) on Friday, Oct. 2 and Saturday, Oct. 3.
Although this year’s team is young, Blackburn feels that its success will depend largely on its depth.
“For us, having that depth is really good,” Blackburn said. “If someone has a few bad points and needs to be pulled out, being able to give them a breather and have them go back in is something we’re going to be working on for the rest of the season. Everyone who’s jumped in has been ready to go so far for us, which means we can really use that depth without any ‘lag’ when someone comes onto the court.”
The Panthers will return home the following week, when they warm up with a non-conference game against Skidmore on Tuesday, Oct. 6 before taking on conference foes Amherst on Friday, Oct. 9 and Williams on Saturday, Oct. 10.
