The women's volleyball team had an opportunity to make one final statement in hosting the 2013 University Athletic Association tournament this weekend, squaring off in heated rivalries against its conference foes. Although the team played well for prolonged stretches during the tournament, they came away empty-handed, suffering defeats on Friday to No. 8 Washington University in St. Louis and Case Western Reserve University. The squad also could not pull off a final victory on Saturday, falling in a five set loss in the seventh-place match to the University of Rochester YellowJackets.

In their final weekend of the season, outside hitter Si-Si Hensley '14 stressed the importance of maintaining focus.

"Even though they were my last [matches], I treated them like any other match," Hensley said. "No matter what the circumstance I still expect myself and my teammates to come out with the same drive and mindset that we would for any other match."

Although the Judges dropped the opening two sets to the YellowJackets on Saturday, the team battled back with two sets of their own to force a fifth set tiebreaker. Rochester dominated the first two sets by 25-14 and 25-12 margins, and did not allow the Judges to come within four points after building successive 7-2 leads in the two sets.

In the third set the two teams traded points and could not build a lead greater than four points. The Judges trailed 12-8 in what could have been the final set of their season. Yet, the hosts rattled off a 17-7 run to take the third set 25-19. The Judges strung together three sets of three-point rallies, receiving five of the game-high 17 kills from outside hitter Liz Hood '15 during that span of play.

In the fourth set, neither team could break away as the Judges clung to a 15-14 lead. Over the final 10 points of the set, the two teams were tied seven times. The Judges used three straight kills by Hood to put away the set and evened the match at two sets apiece.

The Judges stumbled out of the gate in the fifth set, as two unforced errors on Brandeis allowed Rochester to begin the tiebreaking set with a lead. Rochester never looked back and took the set 15-11, taking the seventh-place match 3-2 by scores of 25-14, 25-12, 19-25, 23-25 and 15-11.

Although the match ended in defeat, the Judges received strong play from Hood, who registered a double-double with 17 kills and 11 digs. Hensley recorded 12 kills and 16 digs for a double-double while libero Elsie Bernaiche '15 recorded a team-high 21 digs.

Even though the match ended in defeat, Hensley was proud of the effort put forth by the Judges.

"Our team worked really hard this weekend and we had some really good moments and games," she explained. "We definitely put in a lot of fight even though our execution may not always have been there at times."

Before the seventh-place match on Sunday, the Judges had an opportunity to steal a big victory over WashU on Friday in the tournament's opening match.

The Judges controlled most of the opening set against the Bears and led 19-18 before WashU closed out the set on a 7-3 run. In a mirror image of the first set, the Judges fell behind 19-18 in the second set but this time featured a 7-3 run of their own. The Judges closed out the set with kills from Hensley and Hood as well as strong services from Bernaiche to tie the match at one set.

WashU showed their strength down the stretch, though, dominating the third and fourth sets, never allowing the Judgesmore than 16 points in any game.

The Bears also extended leads of 11 and 15 in the two sets respectively, taking the match by a 3-1 margin and individualscores of 25-23, 22-25, 25-16, and 25-13.

Brandeis sputtered to a three set loss against Case in their second game Friday, squandering a 19-13 lead in the first set and leading just once over the second and third sets. The Spartans cruised to an easy 3-0 victory over the Judges by scores of 25-23, 25-16, 25-22.

The Judges end the season with a record of 10-25 record, eighth in UAA standings, but can look forward to featuring a veteran core next year.

Brandeis graduates just two of its starters from this year, Hensley and setter Yael Einhorn '14, and in turn, seeks to bring back Hood, Bernaiche and middle blocker Carly Gutner-Davis '15 to lead the team next year.
*