In the opening set, sloppy play by the Firedogs led to an early 3-10 Bowdoin lead. However, Bethany Belisle ’10, tri-captain and the team’s sole senior, tried to step up on her Senior Night. Belisle’s service led to seven straight points to tie it at 10 all. The Firedogs would extend this to a 15-4 run, leading to a Polar Bears timeout with Amherst up 18-14. However, Bowdoin rallied coming out of the timeout to take the opening set 23-25. In the second set, Bowdoin’s front line proved to be too much for Amherst’s outside hitters. The Firedogs battled to the end, but the Polar Bear blocks were too much, and the Polar Bears edged the Firedogs again, 22-25. However, despite the close sets, the 0-2 deficit failed to fire up the Firedogs as it has happened in previous matches. In fact the opposite seemed to occur. Bowdoin rolled over Amherst with seemingly little effort, tallying 15 kills on just 31 attacks in the 15-25 victory, while the Firedogs had nearly as many errors (eight) as kills (nine). Laura Hyman ’11, Katherine Kanoff ’12 and tri-captain Jackie Berkley ’11 led the Firedogs in the loss with eight kills each. Setter Katherine Jordan ’11 tallied 23 assists, while Belisle and tri-captain libero Rachel Yorke ’11 were the top Amherst defenders, with 12 and 16 digs respectively.
The Firedogs seemed to regain their spark in time for Saturday’s match, but it wasn’t enough to take down Tufts, the NESCAC’s number one team. Amherst played even with Tufts early in the first set, tying at 12 before the Jumbos pulled away to a 14-19 lead. A Firedog timeout wasn’t able to improve the situation, as Tufts returned to score three straight en route to the 16-25 win. In the first frame, Amherst’s outside hitters totaled just eight kills. The opposite occurred with the second set, in which the Firedogs opened with a 5-1 rally. During the rally, Kanoff contributed two points with a pair of aces, and fellow sophomore Cristy Meier added another with a pretty tip kill. A kill by Berkley bumped the score up to 11-6, forcing a Jumbos timeout, but Tufts continued to feel the pressure, eventually needing another timeout after a hitting error gave Amherst a 17-11 lead. Tufts made a brief rally with scores on back-to-back serves before Berkley shut them down with another kill to make the score 21-17. Meier would finish the game with a powerful kill that ricocheted off a Tufts player all the way to the back scoreboard, finishing the set 25-20.
However, in the third set, the Firedogs again found themselves out of sync, and the Jumbos took the third set 25-16, finishing on an 8-4 run. Amherst regrouped in the fourth frame, taking a 13-9 lead. Tufts fought back and drew even at 14, before taking the lead at 16-18. Hyman and Kanoff retaliated to bring the Firedogs within one; a Tufts hitting error tied the game at 22 all. Meier would tie them up again at 24 with consecutive kills, but a Tufts kill and a Firedog hitting error gave Tufts the frame and the game.
As it has been all season, their playing rhythm is essential to the Firedog’s play, but they still have issues hitting their rhythm every game. Yorke is optimistic that her team will get that consistency down in time for the championships.
“NESCACs has been such a tossup; whoever shows up to play will probably win,” commented Yorke. “Friday night, we struggled to find our flow and it didn’t feel like we showed up to play. Although we lost on Saturday against Tufts, we felt ready and it showed us that we haven’t yet reached our full potential. Hopefully we will see what we can really do during the NESCAC tournament.”
The Firedogs face Middlebury first in the NESCAC quarterfinal. In previous meetings this season, the two teams split the games 1-1, with tight matches each time. Amherst took the more important match-up of the two that counted towards NESCAC standings. With their third meeting now far more important than either of their two preceding matches, Amherst and Middlebury’s final face off of the season will undoubtedly be even more explosive than its predecessors as well.