The Oberlin College volleyball team continued to struggle last weekend, losing three tightly contested matches at Defiance College on Saturday afternoon.
One of the losses came to conference foe Wooster in four games, which was especially hard for the team to handle because they played a match that was not their best product. Oberlin fought hard until the end of the match, eventually falling 30-26 in the fourth and final game.
The other two losses came at the hands of Defiance College and St. Mary’s College, respectively, both in three games.
On Wednesday evening the team traveled to Columbus, Ohio, and was swept by Capital University in three games. With its victory, Capital University now has an impressive win total of 14. The Yeowomen played without two regular starters and it showed as they lost 30-7, 30-18 and 30-8. With this loss, Oberlin slips to a season record of 1-13.
In what now becomes a crucial part of the schedule for the team to get on track, the Yeowomen will have many more home contests coming to Phillips Gymnasium in the next few weeks. With as many as three new starters in the lineup at all times this season, playing at home could give the team the added confidence it will need to play better as a unit and pull together some wins.
After the losses at Defiance, junior Adrienne Zoller talked about the weekend’s matches: “We don’t expect to go out there and win but we all know that we are capable of some great things on the court. We need to keep fighting when the times get tough and push through it to have better results.”
In many of the recent games, the Yeowomen have been making it harder for their opponents to put them away.
“We all feel that we are really close to putting together some wins but we need to believe that we can win,” Zoller said.
Although the Yeowomen have struggled this season, there have been signs of improvement that have led to optimism for the upcoming part of the schedule.
“Winning will happen soon and we all have seen how much we have improved since the first practice,” Zoller said.
Through the weekend tournament, junior Amber Coleman was leading the team with 94 kills and 80 digs while junior Darci Leonhart led the team with 215 assists.
Oberlin will begin this pivotal stretch of the season by traveling to Denison University in Granville, Ohio, where they will look to start the conference schedule off on the right foot when they face both Denison and Earlham College on Saturday. Oberlin will then host Marietta College on Monday at 7 p.m. and will look to gain their first home victory of the season.
Although the mood of the team has remained high through the difficult stretch, nothing would help the morale of the team more than a couple of wins.
“We have the talent,” Zoller said, “and when we put it together, we are going to surprise some teams.”