BY DENNIS FAN

In print | Published October 30, 2008

The end of the Swarthmore women’s volleyball team’s (6-17, CC 2-6) season draws ever closer as the Garnet completed two of their last four matches this past week. The first match, against Ursinus College, was a three set rout as Swarthmore won resoundingly, 25-10, 25-20, 25-20. Later that week, our Garnet fought hard against Gettysburg on an exciting Senior Day, but eventually lost the match, 25-22, 25-22, 25-9.

During the Ursinus match, the Garnet women were able to dictate the pace of the game by serving hard, digging often, and communicating well. Jen Wang ’09 finished the game by smashing her own school season-kill record, contributing 17 kills to reach 321 kills for the season and adding a team-high of 21 digs. Other notable exploits included the performances of Genny Pezzola ’12, who posted an impressive 12 kills and 11 digs, and Hillary Santana ’12 with 15 digs.

It was hard to miss the advertisements for the Senior Day match against Gettysburg. The women used the irresistible allure of brownies and free t-shirts, hung a bed sheet in Sharples, chalked the sidewalks, made the indispensable Facebook event and even made posters with the two seniors’ (Wang and Erin Heaney) heads Photoshopped onto the bodies of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh.

The result was a record attendance of 214 students, family, and staff in the audience, far surpassing the old record of roughly 125 audience members. The Garnet would keep Gettysburg on their toes through the first two sets, losing by only three points in each. Coach Harleigh Chwastyk comments that often, because of Swarthmore’s weaker record this season, “Teams don’t know how good we are.” Heaney added that the Gettysburg team, which was tied for first in the conference at the time, decided to keep in all of their starters once they realized how close the match was. Heaney also contributed 18 digs to increase her career dig total to 1,548, cementing her own school record and catapulting her to 14th in Conference history for career digs.

Senior Day gave senior captains Wang and Heaney time to reflect on their careers at Swarthmore as well as the season so far. Wang commented that for herself and Heaney, “[Senior Day] was really a trip down memory lane.” Wang and Heaney have been playing together since freshman year and between them, many school records have fallen.

Heaney added that volleyball here at Swarthmore had really helped her “learn how to be a member of the community.” The volleyball community might be described by her as a process of “working each other harder, but also keeping each other up.”

Heaney was also proud of the team’s performance this season. “We were very young and small (in height and numbers) and went in with the cards stacked against us,” she said, but nonetheless, “we laid the foundations for next year.” Though on the surface this season had not been exceptionally triumphant, as both Ursinus and Gettysburg learned, the team was capable of competing at a high level.

Chwastyk concurred and added that the team improved greatly over the past few months. Parents who had watched their first games came back for Senior Day and expressed disbelief at the team’s quality of play.

Even without a middle blocker for the season, and with a small team, the Garnet can be considered the best team, defensively, in the conference, with a Centennial Conference high of 19.0 digs per set. Wang added that this team has been the most dedicated that she has played with in her four years at Swarthmore, stating that no one player can be credited with making the team successful. It is still difficult, however, to imagine the face of Swarthmore Volleyball without its two seniors. Chwastyk stated the roles of Wang and Heaney on this team. “[As a coach], you always want to see your athletes build a communication and trust. I’ve never had a pair that’s moved together like Jen and Erin,” Chwastyk said.

The Garnet women face two more challenges in their final week of the fall season, Wednesday 7 p.m. at home against rivals Haverford and an away game on Saturday against Franklin and Marshall.

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