Despite finishing last season just two games over .500, the volleyball team still qualified for the Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III New England Tournament as the No. 2 seed. But injuries to outside hitter Paige Blasco '11 and setter Abby Blasco '11 forced the team to make lineup changes, and the Judges ultimately lost a five-set match to No. 7 Colby-Sawyer College, dropping them from the tournament and ending the team's season.This year, the Blasco twins are both back, and if past performance is any indication, they will have large roles on the team this season.

Paige Blasco led the team last season with 409 kills overall and 3.41 kills per set. Meanwhile, her sister, Abby, had 1,078 assists last season, over 1,000 more than anyone else on the team.

The team also returns fellow senior middle blocker Nicole Smith '11, who last year led the University Athletic Association with 140 blocked shots.

The Judges also got key contributions last season from middle blocker/right-side hitter Beeca Fisher '13. Fischer appeared in 30 of the team's 34 matches and had 92 blocks, second on the team to Smith. She was also sixth on the team with 122 kills.

The Judges will have at least three newcomers on the squad this year as well. Three players have already agreed to join the team this season, though setter Yael Einhorn '14 is the only first-year among them.

Defensive specialist Aviva Berezin '13 is transferring from Westfield State College, and defensive specialist Bella Hu '13 joined the team in spring practice last year after playing in high school.

"I believe [Hu is] friends with a few of the girls on the team, and she expressed [interest] about trying out for the team, so I invited her to come down during the spring semester," Coach Michelle Kim said. Kim said she was mostly impressed by "just her love for the sport and her passion for the game."

In addition to Hu, Kim said there could be some walk-ons joining the team this year as well.

However, the team did lose right-side hitter Piera Carfagno '10 and outside hitter/middle blocker Bridget McAllister '10 to graduation, both of whom started all 34 games for the team last year. Carfagno was second to Paige Blasco in kills with 274, while McCallister finished fourth with 190 kills. Also gone is libero Lauren Polinksy '10, who appeared in 29 games and had 69 digs last season.

Last year, the squad finished 18-16 after playing a tough schedule. But this year, the University scheduled games against many of the same teams it played last year, including against games against the always-tough UAA teams. The Judges went just 2-9 in the UAA last season, finishing sixth in the conference. Their only wins came against University of Rochester (3-0) on Oct. 4, 2009 and Carnegie Mellon University (3-1) on Nov. 7, 2009.

"The UAA teams are going be different, too, with the new people that they have," Kim said. "Unlike our regional opponents, who we can scout, . [with our] UAA opponents, we don't really get to see. . It's just a matter of trying to do things we know how to do well consistently, and hopefully we can figure them out quickly as we're playing against them."

Kim pointed out that UAA volleyball teams are not permitted to watch video footage of the other conference teams to prepare for matches. They can only- scout the other teams by watching them play during the round robin tournaments during the regular season. But Kim knows that the team also must stay relatively healthy this season in order to remain in playoff contention. She said the team is reasonably healthy but mentioned that most of her players have recurring injuries that they have to learn to deal with.

"Some of the chronic injuries, a player's going to always have," Kim said, "so those people with chronic injuries still have their chronic injuries, but it's a matter of just managing the injuries and making sure they're fresh and ready to go for games and do what we can in practices. I saw most of them, and they look pretty healthy for now, so we'll just have to keep monitoring their injuries and make sure that they're good to go."

The team kicks off its season Sept. 1 at home against Babson College at 7 p.m.