Though the Firedogs ended their season with a tough loss to defending National Champions Juniata College, they recorded the best season in the history of the Amherst volleyball program. The team is proud of its success and progress and won’t let the final loss tarnish its outstanding season.

For the first time ever, the Amherst volleyball team made it to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. Slated to play the defending champs, the Firedogs knew that they would have to pull out all the stops.

The ’Dogs kept their opponents in sight for the first part of Game One. As the game went on, however, they began to fall apart, eventually suffering a 30-8 loss, their worst of the season. Struggling to regain confidence, the Firedogs relied on their seniors to keep them in the match. Tri-captains Jaclyn DeMais ’08 and Whitney Kouvaris ’08 took charge of the offense and led the Firedogs to a 16-14 lead. They couldn’t hold onto the lead, however, and lost the second frame by a score of 30-22.

Backed into a corner, with only one more chance to prolong their season, the ’Dogs showed a surge of energy to start the third game, jumping out to an early 8-4 lead. The Firedogs could not hold on, however, and they fell in the third game, 30-21. Though Amherst kept it close for nearly the entire match, Juniata proved too strong and the Firedogs’ season came to a close with a 3-0 loss in the quarterfinals.

DeMais notched 13 kills for Amherst, while Kouvaris and rookie middle hitter Jackie Berkley added five each. First-year libero Rachel Yorke played excellent defense, tallying 17 digs, and was helped by DeMais and senior tri-captain Julie Berkley, each of whom had nine digs.

Even with the loss, Amherst’s final record stands at 30-5. They excelled both collectively and individually. As a team, the Firedogs led the conference in both blocks and hitting percentages. DeMais was named NESCAC Player of the Year, and both Kouvaris and setter Sara Heller ’09 earned spots on the All-Conference Second Team. Hannah Wirth ’09 led the NESCAC in hitting percentage, while Heller recorded the most assists in the Conference for the second straight year.

“When all is said and done, we wanted to finish the season the way it deserved to be finished, at the top,” Heller acknowledged. “[But] though we lost in Illinois, I think every girl feels nothing but pride for how we finished as a team.”