---

BY TIMOTHY BERNSTEIN

In print | Published October 29, 2009

The Swarthmore volleyball team’s season-high five-game winning streak came to an end Saturday with a straight-sets road loss at Gettysburg.

It was the first loss for Swarthmore since Oct. 8, with a final score of 25-20, 25-19, 25-20.

“It was a competitive match; even though the final score didn’t necessarily show it, it was point-for-point every set, until [Gettysburg] ran away with it in that last set,” head coach Harleigh Chwastyk said after the match. “[The Gettysburg players] are a little bit bigger [and] they were in their gym, but at the same time, we certainly didn’t execute to the best of our ability.”

Genny Pezzola ’12 led the team with 13 kills and Hillary Santana ’12 added 15 digs on defense, but all three sets ended in Gettysburg’s favor.

Bullets senior Kristina Mercier posted an even dozen kills and eight digs with a team-best .524 attack percentage. The victory was the sixth straight for Gettysburg.

While the Garnet came into the match confident, having racked up a five-game winning streak of their own, the matchup history between the two teams remains extremely lopsided.

With the win Saturday, Gettysburg improved to 28-0 all-time against the Garnet volleyball team, an incredible streak of dominance for a collegiate program.

“[The Gettysburg program] is a championship program. At one point they won five conference titles in a row,” Chwastyk said.

“There’s a championship tradition for volleyball there, and it’s been that way for a long time, while [Swarthmore volleyball] is just reaching that level now,” she added.

While it is only the second straight-sets defeat of the season for the Garnet (the first having come against Richard Stockton on Sept. 26), Saturday’s defeat came at a much more critical point in the season with only two games left to play.

Swarthmore (18-7, 6-2 CC) left Gettysburg tied with the Bullets for third place in the Centennial Conference standings.

However, yesterday’s conference action brought a bigger consolation for the Garnet. Despite dropping a 3-0 decision to No. 25 Haverford (27-3, 9-0 CC), a loss by McDaniel (16-11, 5-4 CC) gave Swarthmore sole occupancy of the fourth slot in the conference standings, meaning that even a loss against Franklin & Marshall (22-5, 8-1 CC) will leave the Garnet no lower than fifth.

The top five teams will play in the conference championship tournament.

“Defense first, always,” Chwastyk said when asked what she planned to emphasize this week in preparation for play against the top teams in the conference.

“A focus on digging, focus on passing, and also serve-receive, which is how ball control starts. We also want to make sure we play up-tempo and control the pace of the game,” she added.

“The way it’s stacked up, we’re playing the top three teams in the conference to finish the season,” Chwastyk continued.

Indeed, these final two games are anything but pushovers; but they give Swarthmore invaluable tune-up as the playoffs loom large.

“It’s great preparation for the playoffs,” Chwastyk said.

The first round of the tournament, scheduled for Nov. 4 between the fourth and fifth seeds will be held at Swarthmore if McDaniel loses to Haverford on Saturday or if Swarthmore beats Franklin & Marshall.

Prior to Saturday’s regular season cap, the Garnet will honor Kearney Bangs ’10 and Johanna Bond ’10 as they prepare to play their final regular season match at Tarble Pavilion before their playoff debut.

Play against the Diplomats is set to start at 1 p.m.

---

« RETURN TO SPORTS

« PREV ARTICLE | NEXT ARTICLE »