After a disappointing, injury-plagued 2008 season, the Brandeis volleyball team will start the 2009 season with a tough test right off the bat tonight at Babson College. Babson is coming off one of its best seasons in years. The 2008 Babson team finished 16-12, losing to the University of New England in the quarterfinals of the Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III New England Volleyball Championship Tournament. Brandeis chose not to participate in the tournament, which it had won in the past two years.

The game will be a test for a Judges squad that will have almost as many returning players as it has rookies in the upcoming season. After recruiting no first-years last year, the Judges will have five rookies join the squad this season.

The last matchup between the two teams was in 2007, when the Judges defeated Babson 3-0 at the Brandeis Invitational. But the inexperienced Babson squad that played two years ago now boasts two juniors and three seniors. Leading the upperclassmen is senior middle hitter Caitlin O'Neill, a second team All-New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference selection last year who led the team with 65 blocks and was second with 277 kills and 41 aces.

Unlike the Brandeis volleyball team, the Beavers had a strong rookie class last year, highlighted by outside hitter Meg Flaherty. She led the team last year with 309 kills while also playing well on defense with 265 digs.

"I'm extremely excited about the potential of this year's team," Babson coach Tonya Strange told the Babson Athletics Web site. "This may be the most talent we've had on our roster since I've been back [in 2006]. However, we're also playing a much more difficult schedule this fall, so we will need to work cohesively and continually improve as a team throughout the season if we are going to maintain the success we enjoyed last year. If we can do that, it should be a really fun and exciting season for Babson volleyball."

Meanwhile, the Judges will have to deal with the loss of one of their best players in team history, outside hitter Lorraine Wingenbach '09.

Wingenbach finished her Brandeis career as the team's all-time leader in kills, kills per set and games played and was second all-time in digs and aces. But the team will have the return of setter Abby Blasco '11, who led the team with 787 assists last year and outside hitter Paige Blasco '11, who had a team-high 339 kills last season.

While middle blocker Piera Carfagno '10 thinks this year's team has improved since its first practice together, it will be different in the first game.

"We've come a long way; it's just games are different from practice," Carfagno said. "You can practice all the technical stuff, you can do as many repetitions as you want, but the tempo of the game is different. You're playing against people you haven't played before; it's a different ball game."

The game will begin at 7 p.m.