 "Photo: Kathleen Mehocic")
On Feb. 2, an event of cyclopean proportions began to unfurl in the outer reaches of Vassar’s campus. Kenyon Hall was abuzz with life. Devoted fans filled the stands, dedicated coaches prowled the sidelines and determined athletes went through their usual pre-game paces. The men’s volleyball team was up against its longtime rival, the New York University (NYU) Violets.
The Brewers have had their fair share of run-ins with the purple plague from the city, and Vassar’s ultimate defeat was in no part perpetuated by a lack of competitive verve from the rose and grey.
The first game of the match saw the Violets pull ahead to a considerable lead, which was swiftly closed by the persistent peppering of kills and aces from Brewer hands. Tension was palpable as the scrappy Brewers managed to create a tie at the 24-point mark. However, any lead achieved was quickly devoured by NYU’s ruthless recovery tactics. All of the Brewers’ finesse was not enough to stop the Violets from clutching a 32-30 victory over Vassar.
The Brewers were not so hot coming off of the heels of defeat, as the second game of the match, while speckled with a few bright spots, was ultimately a fairly brutal defeat for Vassar. The Violets took an early 8-2 lead that would persist and expand throughout the match, despite a heroic performance from Fredericksen, who delivered 16 kills throughout the match. Another redeeming moment for the Brewers was a last second dive at a dug ball by Christian La Du ’13. Notwithstanding our few moments of glory, the Brewers fell to the Violets 30-21.
Coming into the third game, Vassar was on edge. They would need to win the next three games in order to take the match, a daunting task to say the least. Vassar opened strong, scoring the first two points.
Although NYU pulled forward, Brewer resolve was high. The game played out with fierce competitiveness, as each team vied for the leading position. The tie persisted up through the first 25 points until NYU finally pulled ahead and sunk the nail into the coffin at 30-27. Head Coach Antonia Sweet said that the Brewers played well, despite their loss. “That’s what we needed to do: [play well] against a quality opponent,” she wrote in an e-mailed statement. “We needed to win the serve and pass, and we didn’t. Yet we hung tough.”
Defeated, but not extinguished, the Brewers held their heads high, reflected on the positives and set their gaze towards what would prove to be a winning match against Stevens Institute of Technology on Feb. 5. “The Stevens win felt like it all came together at the right time,” wrote Sweet. “We got good things from everyone—total team effort, the opposite of the NYU match.”
Against Stevens, Tully delivered an impressive 18 kills, and Fredericksen proved just how consistent his offensive force is by racking up a total of 16 kills. The next day, the Brewers split a double-header against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Endicott College. The matches were close. The Brewers fell 3-1 (30-28, 28-30, 22-30, 19-30) against MIT, but their perseverance paid off in a 3-0 (30-25, 30-26-30-24) match against Endicott.
The squad’s winning record now sits at 5-3 for the season, and both the wins against Stevens and Endicott and the strong showings against MIT and NYU gave the Brewers a greater sense of confidence and drive. “If you look at our matches against Stevens or Springfield, it’s clear that we possess the individual talent to compete with the best teams in Division III,” wrote Fredericksen in an e-mailed statement. “We just need mental discipline to become consistent, and that should come from experience and the hard work that we put in during practice every day.”
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