The Tripod

Photo: Emily Gittleman. The Lady Bantams huddle during one of their matches over the weekend. [Click to enlarge]

It was an exciting weekend, chock-full of volleyball, as the Trinity women's volleyball team hosted five other NESCAC schools in a very pink Ray Oosting Gymnasium. In addition to the nine volleyball matches that were played over the course of the weekend, Trinity hosted the "Dig Pink" breast cancer awareness rally, sponsored by the Side-Out Foundation. The Bantams wore "Dig Pink" warm up T-shirts, pink shoelaces, pink ribbons, and pink headbands to show their support for the cause, which raised over $3,000. This weekend was memorable for another reason as well. With posters, pictures, and other decorations adorning the walls of the locker room and gym, Emily Borsting '09, Lisa Esposito '09, and captains Nicole Cahill '09 and Sara Fiorillo '09 played their final home matches of their distinguished careers. The Bantams will be on the road for their last four games of the season and wanted to make this weekend special.

Coming in ranked eighth, with a 10-8 record (1-4 in the NESCAC), Trinity played three games this weekend against the Bates College Bobcats, the Bowdoin College Polar Bears, and the Colby College Mules. They started off the action on Friday, Oct. 17, with a match against Bates in which they suffered a disappointing loss. According to Amanda Poole '11, "Bates is a good team, but they're team we should have beaten if we had played to our potential. We definitely could have played better."

On Saturday, Oct. 18, they continued the action with an early match against a tough Bowdoin team. Bowdoin, the number sixth ranked team in the conference played extremely tough defense the entire match. Every point was hard earned as the relentless Bowdoin defense hardly made a mistake. There were times in the match where Trinity appeared to have the momentum, but Bowdoin would always come right back. In the end, Trinity suffered another tough loss, losing all three games, 25-18, 25-20, and 25-23.

Not all was lost however, as Trinity ended the weekend on a positive note, defeating Colby 3-1. The Bantams put it all together in this one, controlling the serve and playing stellar defense. After a back and forth start to the first game, Trinity went on a roll to win it by a large margin of 25-14. After losing a close game two, the Bantams took early leads in the final two games, beginning each game with 12-4 and 18-4 runs respectively. They used the cushion of an early lead to propel them to eventual easy victories 25-18 and 25-14.

Everyone played inspired volleyball as the team was pumped up and determined to award the seniors with a win in their final performance at home. "The team did a great job of stepping up and really played well against Colby. We really wanted to win our last game at home for our seniors," said Poole after the game.

It may have been the last home game for the seniors, but everyone is still focused for the games to come. With four games remaining, including two conference games to end the season against Amherst College and Tufts University, the team is taking the necessary steps to secure a spot in the playoffs, where they hope to make a statement. With more inspired play like the kind they showed against Colby, this should be no problem for the Bantams.

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