Emerson College’s only independent, student-run newspaper since 1947

The Berkeley Beacon

Emerson College’s only independent, student-run newspaper since 1947

The Berkeley Beacon

Emerson College’s only independent, student-run newspaper since 1947

The Berkeley Beacon

Volleyball 4-game winning streak snapped

That changed last Saturday, however, when the Lions lost to Lasell College in Newton.,”The women's volleyball team looked toward the future with optimism. The squad won five of its last six matches and were above .500 for the first time all season with a 10-9 record.

That changed last Saturday, however, when the Lions lost to Lasell College in Newton.

Junior outside hitter Alex Porteshawver said the game did not go well as Emerson lost straight games, 30-22, 30-28 and 30-25.

"We didn't play our game, that's for sure," Porteshawver said. "We're way more talented than they are [and] we beat ourselves."

Head Coach Ann Miklus said she did not know what went wrong with her team.

"That's a mystery," Miklus said. "We weren't on our top game today."

Junior middle hitter Sammy Shirley said mistakes were what handicapped the team as the players committed 27 unforced errors in the game.

"It was just unnecessary errors," Shirley said. "We played pretty well but we just let them get on runs to get ahead and we couldn't come back."

Freshman middle hitter Molly Soboroff agreed with her teammate.

"We're mentally tough and we shot ourselves in the foot," Soboroff said.

Lasell used a series of misleading maneuvers, called "tips," to accumulate points during the match. Instead of setting the ball so that it could be spiked by a teammate, Lasell would just hit the ball over during a faked set, which fooled the Emerson players.

"We should have been ready because we knew [that] was coming," Porteshawver said. "Tips are the easiest balls to pick up."

Shirley said she believes the Lions didn't pick up the tips because they were not anticipating them at the moments Lasell hit them.

"I guess we were sitting back on our heels expecting harder hits from [Lasell]," Shirley said. "We weren't on our toes to move forward to get [the] tips."

The referees were also responsible for questionable calls during the game that led to points getting taken from Emerson. In the second game, two points were deducted from Emerson because of missed calls by the referees. In the end, Emerson lost that game by two points.

Freshman outside hitter Janna Tonahill said that even if the referees made bad calls, it should not have mattered.

"We can't blame the officiating for losing," Tonahill said.

Porteshawver agreed that not everyone is perfect-including referees.

"That's unfortunate, but that shouldn't make a difference by those mistakes by the refs," she said. "Everyone makes mistakes and it happened to go in [Lasell's] favor today."

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