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BY TIMOTHY BERNSTEIN

In print | Published September 17, 2009

This is the rule of thumb in sports: If a tournament is named after you, you should probably do your best to win it. Tiger Woods has long been a firm believer in this rule. Now the Swarthmore volleyball team is, too.

After a second place finish at last week’s Greyhound Premiere, the Garnet volleyball team (7-2) kept up the momentum, taking all four contests they played to win this weekend’s Seventh Annual Garnet Classic, their first Classic win since 2004.

More impressively, they did it without one of their most prominent players, Johanna Bond ’10, who missed the tournament.

“It was great to see our team play the way they did a player down,” head coach Harleigh Chwastyk said. “This was a great victory.”

The tournament, featuring six teams in two days of round-robin play, used Saturday’s results to determine the semifinal matchups to be played the next morning. Placed in Pool A, Swarthmore first defeated the Albright Lions 3-1 (25-18, 23-25, 25-15, 25-12). The Garnet dominated the Lions offensively, with 53 total kills. Leading the way were Greyhound Premiere All-Tournament team members Kathryn Montemurro ’13 with 14 kills and Genny Pezzola ’12 with 12. Together, the two of them matched the Albright team’s total of 26.

Next up was the Wesley team and more offensive dominance.

While Swarthmore didn’t outperform Wesley statistically, consistent pressure at the net helped the Garnet pull away after a close first game, and in just 86 minutes, the Garnet had its second victory of the day, a 3-0 sweep (25-21, 25-10, 25-12). Pezzola led both teams with 10 kills and 9 digs, and Kearney Bangs ’10 had 11 assists.

The two Saturday wins put the Garnet into a semifinal match with Earlham College, a team that had collected its first win of the season the night before. The visitors used that momentum early, and after a game Swarthmore was down 1-0.

Soon, however, the Garnet juggernaut was righted, due in no small part to another 18 kills from Pezzola, and less than an hour later, Swarthmore had a 3-1 (22-25, 25-14, 25-12, 25-16) victory and a spot in Sunday afternoon’s championship match against Cabrini.

In the championship match, Cabrini showed more fight early on than Earlham, dropping the first game to the Garnet 27-25 but rebounding to take the second 25-21.

After that, however, in what has quickly become a staple of this year’s Garnet volleyball team, Swarthmore pulled away and never gave their opponent a chance to get back in the game. The final score: Swarthmore 3, Cabrini 1 (27-25, 25-21, 25-9, 25-13). Lisa Shang ’12 led Swarthmore with 17 digs, and Pezzola added 23 kills, bringing her tournament total to 65. After the victory over Cabrini, she was named the Most Valuable Player for the 2009 Garnet Classic but refused to single herself out for the accomplishment.

“We showed that we are a team that plays hard and never gives up,” Pezzola said. “We kept playing point for point, and now we know when we are down all we need to do is keep pushing.”

This isn’t to say that the team is willing to peak now. Happy? Yes. Satisfied? No.

“I’m so proud of my team and everything we’ve accomplished so far,” Shang said. “Winning Classic, however, is only one of our many [goals] this season and we want to use this victory as further motivation.”

“Our hitting was spectacular, especially [Sunday],” outside hitter Sarah Lambert ’11 said following the tournament. “Our defense remained strong, and our serving was something that was key in this weekend’s play.”

It could even be said that the Garnet improved in every game they played over the weekend, playing tighter defense and putting teams away with more authority on offense.

“We were having a little trouble early on [in the tournament] with some ball dropping on defense, but by the championship game, we were playing a lot tougher [on] defense and putting the pressure on [Cabrini],” first-year setter Allie Coleman ’13 said of the team’s performance. “It’s amazing to win any tournament, especially one at our house.”

Still another impressive component of the Garnet game is one that transcends statistics but ultimately determines the difference between success and failure.

Even volleyball neophytes find it hard to miss how the Garnet plays every single point as a team. Throughout the tournament, there was no dwelling on errors made or points lost, but instead, the women provided each other with the luxury of a constant stream of support and encouragement. With almost studious repetition, they precede every point with an group fist pump in the middle of the court.

Was the strategy effective? Four wins in two days would say it was.

“We play with heart and hustle,” Shang said, “and that puts us a step above our opponents.”
“Our camaraderie,” Lambert said, only half-joking, “is superior to other teams’.”

After a performance like the one they gave this weekend, the Garnet have good reason to be confident in their team spirit. Not to mention the other parts of their game.

The women will compete next at Neumann College on Saturday, where they will face the host Knights (1-9) at 11 a.m. before taking on Widener (7-4) at 1 p.m.

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