The women’s volleyball team cruised past Worcester Polytechnic Institute 3-1 on Thursday and did not disappoint at Homecoming on Saturday.  Playing at home, the squad dominated Gordon College and the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth with 3-0 shutout victories.

Judges 3, UMass-Dartmouth 0

Brandeis ended its Homecoming performances on Saturday with a commanding 3-0 victory over UMass-Dartmouth, winning by scores of 25-14, 26-24 and 25-10.

Right side hitter Zara Platt ’19 led the way for the Judges offensively with 11 kills.  Right side hitter Marissa Borgert ’21 and outside hitter Clare Meyers ’21 were also key contributors with eight and seven kills, respectively. Team captain and libero Yvette Cho ’19 was the key defensive force for the Judges with 13 digs. 

After a disappointing 7-21 season last year, the Judges look like an entirely different team out on the court in 2017.  Cho stated that this year’s success comes from a revised collective approach by the entire squad.  “The biggest difference between the team last year and this year is that everyone is on the same page” she said.  “The coaches have worked extremely hard to instill the mentality we need to be successful, and we’ve embraced it.  I think that once we all realized that we all had that common goal of wanting to improve every time we stepped onto the court, it got easy, because we started to play for each other to make each other better. The environment is just entirely different this year than in years past, and we all worked really hard to get to this point.”  

The new hunger for constant improvement and success has clearly paid off — the Judges already have three more wins this year than last year in 12 fewer matches played.

Judges 3, Gordon 0

Brandeis came into this match earlier on Saturday with an 8-6 record, while Gordon stood at an imposing 11-7 mark.  The Judges did not let the differences in records affect them as they blew past Gordon, winning in shutout fashion by scores of 25-15, 25-22 and 25-15.

Borgert once again dominated with a team-high nine kills and added three service aces as well.  Borgert, Meyers and fellow first-year, middle hitter Belle Scott ’21, have all played huge parts in the Judges’ successful season so far.  Cho says that the first-years “have made an enormous impact on our program already.  Their positive attitude and drive to always get better constantly motivate the rest of the team to be the best that we can … I don’t think that we could’ve been any happier with this recruiting class.”

Judges 3, WPI 1

Brandeis began its week at home with a hard-fought win over WPI 3-1 by close scores of 27-25, 25-20, 17-25 and 25-22. 

Middle hitter Emma Bartlett ’20 stole the show in this one, leading the team with 15 kills.  Bartlett was closely followed by outside hitter Shea Decker-Jacoby ’19, who added 14 kills.  Borgert was equally menacing on offense with 10 kills of her own.  Defensively, Decker-Jacoby was all over the court with a team-high 25 digs, while Cho recorded 20 of her own to help preserve the victory.

Brandeis will look to earn its fourth straight victory on Saturday against Case Western Reserve University at the University of Chicago.