This season has been a roller coaster coaster so far for the Judges, who are 5-4 for the season. They lost two out of their last three games. After defeating Gordon College, the Judges fell to Endicott College and Tufts University. 

Judges 2, Endicott 3

The Judges suffered a close loss to the Gulls of Endicott College on Friday Sep. 14. The Judges began to fall behind during their fifth set and never made it back to defeat the Gulls. In the first set, the Gulls quickly obtained a 9-1 lead. In the second set, the Judges started with this same speed, capturing a 10-3 start. The Gulls won the first set 14-25 and the Judges won the second set 25-14. In the third set, the Judges were set up with the advantage of 7-1; however, the Gulls did not back down. They fought back to tie the set at 15-all. Thanks to Marissa Borgert ’21 and Emma Bartlett ’20, the team would get the next five points in the set. Ultimately, the Judges would go on to win the set 25-19. With this 2-1 lead, the Judges entered the fourth set. This set started close in score, but Endicott pulled ahead and took the set with a score of 25-17. With the teams tied at two sets each, it was the final set that determined the overall victory for Endicott. They started the set with a 4-0 lead and continued to dominate, winning the set with a score of 11-15 and thus winning the overall match. 

Judges 1, Tufts 3

The Judges fell to 5-3 for the season with their match against the Jumbos on Wednesday Sep. 12, while the Jumbos improved to 4-2 on the season. The first set started off with both teams battling for the lead as teams exchanged the. However, Tufts’ Brigid Bell tied the score at 11, and the Jumbos were able to dominate the first set after this point. Overall, they ended up winning this first set 25-17. In the second set, though, the Judges began with an early lead. In fact, this set tied a total of seven times. When the score was tied at 20 points for each team, Emerson White ’22 and Belle Scott ’21 helped the Judges make kills that allowed the Judges to take the second set with a lead of 25-22. The match was then tied 1-1. Set three began with a tie, 7-7. However, the Jumbos’ Cate Desler put the team ahead with a kill followed by an ace by their own Mackenzie Bright. Ultimately, they led the rest of the set with a 25-19 victory. Tufts took the lead in the final set early and the Judges were not able to recover. With a 25-17 win in the set, the Jumbos took the entire match 3-1.

Judges 3, Gordon 1

The Judges’ most recent victory was against Gordon College on Saturday, Sept. 8, improving the Judges to 5-2, overall.  The Scots won a close first set against the Judges. Both teams battled the entire time as they both struggled offensively. Combined, both teams had only three more kills than attack errors. 

Despite the troubling first set, the Judges were able to win the next three sets to take the match against the Scots. The second set was most remarkable, as they hit 0.450. In this match, Borgert, Bartlett and senior Shea Decker-Jacoby finished with eight kills each. The Judges really showed strength in this match and Kaisa Newberg ’22 accounted for 11.5 points of the match with six kills and six blocks. She also accounted for six out of the 13 blocks the Judges performed that day. The Judges will take on Emerson on Thursday.