This season is certainly shaping up to be one of the stronger ones in Middlebury Volleyball’s recent history. After seeing their winning streak halted at ten games with a loss against Williams two weekends ago, the Panthers promptly started another streak by sweeping NESCAC opponents Colby and Bates this weekend Oct. 16-17, pushing their overall record to 15-3 on the season.
To anyone who’s been following the Panthers this year, the difference between on-paper expectations and actual performance has been nothing short of impressive.
Emily Kolodka ’18, who has served as the team’s libero for most of the season, recalled some of the group’s uncertainty from back in August.
“Coming into this season...initially, everyone was a little on edge. What [will] our freshmen be like? What is it going to be like having no established, older leaders on the team?” Kolodka wondered.
However, “everyone [has] done a really great job stepping into leadership roles,” Kolodka said. “On the court it doesn’t really matter how old you are or if you’re playing with much experience, if you can be calm under pressure… and can step up when you need to — whether you coming off the bench and...haven’t played a game the whole season, or you’ve started every game ...and [just aren’t] having a good game — that’s what counts,” Kolodka said. “I think everyone on our team has done an amazing job of that this season, and I think that’s what’s made us so successful, regardless of the fact that we don’t have any seniors and regardless of those question marks people raised.”
The squad, which has yet to lose a conference game on the road, used all five sets to take care of the Mules Friday evening (22-25, 25-23, 25-16, 17-25, 15-11) before rolling over the Bobcats in four during Saturday’s day game (25-19, 15-25, 25-14, 25-16). These two wins gave Middlebury a 6-2 record in the NESCAC, locking the Panthers in a four-way tie for second place with Amherst, Tufts and Williams.
Despite the unsettling loss to Williams the week prior, the team stuck to its principles in this week’s preparations, Kolodka insisted.
“We definitely didn’t have a different attitude. If anything, it was important for us...to keep moving forward. Especially when you come out from a loss like that, that’s so close—it makes you realize how important every single NESCAC game is [and] how important every single point is,” said Kolodka. “So we really paid attention to detail in practice, trying to do our best …[on] every rep.”
Despite their 3-4 conference record coming into the game, Colby came out more than ready to play on Friday, leading for most of the first set and finishing things off after a Panther comeback tied the game at 22-22. Middlebury responded in a hard-fought second, which ran to 23-23 before the Panthers managed to put the Mules away with a kill from middle blocker Gabi Rosenfeld ’17. It seemed that the third set would be just as close until, knotted at 14-14, Middlebury rattled off ten straight points on the service of outside hitter Isabel Sessions ’19.
Colby took the momentum back from the Panthers in the fourth set as they raced out to an early 12-6 lead. The Mules held Middlebury at arm’s length the rest of the way, forcing a fifth and final set.
Showing the closing strength that’s helped them throughout the season, Middlebury jumped out in front, 6-1. The Panthers fought the Mules’ valiant comeback attempts to finish things off (15-11) on a kill by captain and setter, Hannah Blackburn ’17. Team leaders were outside hitter Becca Raffel ’18 with 13 kills, middle blocker Melanie English ’17 with 4 blocks, and Kolodka with 24 digs.
While the game was closer than the Panthers would’ve liked, especially against a team that’s out of reach of a top spot in the NESCAC, Kolodka wasn’t one to complain.
“Wins are wins, no matter what—so at the end of the day, we’re all really happy that we did what we needed to.” Koldoka said. “I don’t think we were necessarily as clean as this weekend, …but we still pulled it out.”
The team played with more authority on Saturday against Bates, posting decisive wins in the first, third, and fourth sets by margins of 6, 11, and 9 points, respectively. They stumbled briefly in the second, hitting at an unusually low .065 clip as a team.
They didn’t look back though, hitting at .293 the rest of the way and holding the Bobcats to a percentage of .033 over the last two sets. Like in Friday’s game, Raffel led the team in kills (16), English led in blocks (4), and Kolodka led in digs (18).
The Panthers will take a break from NESCAC play this weekend as they travel to Boston for the New England Challenge. They will take on MIT on Friday, Oct. 23 and Babson and Wellesley on Saturday, Oct. 24.
