The Emerson women’s volleyball team entered Bobbi Brown & Steven Plofker Gym at 4-4 overall Tuesday night, hoping to get above .500 as they faced the Wentworth Leopards, who were off to a hot 8-1 start.
The first set began with a back and forth between the Lions and Leopards, with no team leading by more than three points early on. Emerson led 12-8 behind a pair of kills by senior outside hitter Parker Cummings, and soon built a 17-10 advantage behind kills from senior outside hitter Amelia Combs and sophomore setter Mia Rodriguez. The Leopards refused to break, though, fighting through the Lions’ attacks and gaining momentum to cut the lead to four. Still, Emerson remained calm under pressure. A pair of aces from first-year defensive specialist Lily Nguyen sealed the deal, 25-16.
Wentworth proved that they would not go down easily, gaining an early lead on the Lions from the beginning of the second set. Following a 5-1 deficit, Emerson rallied their way to a 9-9 tie after a kill from senior middle hitter Brook Maynez. The Lions took a brief 16-13 lead before Wentworth tied things up at 17. Then, a Combs kill put Emerson back in front. The Lions went on to score three more unanswered points before the Leopards cut the deficit once more. A kill by Cummings gave Emerson a 25-19 win and 2-0 lead.
The game’s third set began in a similar fashion to the second, with Wentworth refusing to quit and getting on the board early. The Lions found themselves down 5-2 before errors and attacks went in their favor. Another Combs kill tied things up at 5 before the Leopards converted on a kill and an ace. The back and forth continued before the Lions gained control, as a kill from Maynez and Nguyen. A kill from sophomore middle hitter Hannah Miller put Emerson up 15-14, and a Wentworth error and Cummings ace extended their lead to three, 17-14. But even as the Leopards got within one, the Lions made the right plays at the right times, going on a 6-1 run to lead 23-17. And after the Leopards got a couple more points to go their way—and Emerson reached set point—the long, final volley ended with another Cummings kill for the win. Emerson took the final set 25-19 and stood at 5-4 by Tuesday night’s end.
Combs led the Lions with 18 kills, while Cummings posted 11, and Maynez finished with ten. Graduate defensive specialist Caroline Davis led the way in digs with 19—days after recording a career-high 37 digs against UMass-Dartmouth on Saturday, Sept. 14.
Head coach Ben Read said the leading core of Davis, Cummings, Maynez, and Combs have done great and performed as expected.
“They’re playing a lot of minutes and seeing a lot of touches,” he said. “They’re continuing to make adjustments to go ahead and keep performing well when we reach conference [play] later. They’re doing a great job leading as captains, seniors, as graduate students. We’re happy with them.”
While Read noted that Tuesday was a “great team win,” he was particularly impressed with the effort from Rodriguez, who tallied 14 digs on the evening.
“She had been hitting just because of the size of our roster and some injuries we’re working through,” Read said. “And then she shifted into setting, and today’s [game] was just hers to run, and she did a great job running our offense, specifically with Amelia, Parker and Brooke.”
“Between the three of them and what we did there passing, and serving the other team out of system, I think we were gonna be a hard team to beat tonight,” he added.
Despite a preseason injury to sophomore outside hitter Rachel Dickerson and recent losses, Read remains encouraged by his team’s non-conference play so far.
“It’s a little bit of a different team than we were thinking, but what that’s done is allowed us some extra time for some other people to catch up with their gameplay and help us more in conference,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of [non-conference] reps. [There were] a couple games I think we could’ve won and probably should’ve won, but we’re still learning about ourselves.”
Read described this year’s non-conference slate as one of the toughest he’s had in his 14 years at Emerson.
“We’re trying to prepare ourselves with tough competition to be ready for the NEWMAC,” he said.
Part of that schedule will include three out-of-state games this weekend, when the Lions face Bowdoin on Friday, Sept. 20, at 7 p.m. before a tri-match against Benedictine and Colby on Saturday, Sept. 21. One of Read’s strategies prior to those contests?
“Stay healthy, knock on wood,” he said, before taking a moment to knock on Brown-Plofker’s wooden floors.
“The other teams are big, they’re fast, they’re doing some good things,” he said. “If we can serve tough and get them out of system…it eliminates some of the options they have to set, and we can set up our defense better and we’ll see more success.”
At the same time, Read believes the keys lie in the team’s offense.
“Making smart decisions, knowing where to swing against certain teams and [serving] tough to help us play better defense,” he added.
The women’s volleyball team begins NEWMAC play at Babson on Tuesday, Sept. 24, at 7 p.m. Their conference home opener is slated for Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. against Mount Holyoke.
