Volleyball Team Working Through Difficult Times
By Jamie Frankel

In what became another long week in the season, the Oberlin College volleyball team struggled to close out opponents once again and dropped all three of their matches.
After this week’s matches, Oberlin now has a season record of 1-20 and is 0-3 in North Coast Athletic Conference games.
On Saturday, the team traveled to Wooster to compete in the Wooster Quadrangular, where solid competition awaited the Yeowomen. From the outset, the Yeowomen were ready to play hard and put forth an intense effort on the court.
Oberlin’s first opponent of the weekend, Bethany College, was a team that Oberlin was rather familiar with, having seen them play earlier in the season. In the back and forth match that ensued, Oberlin managed to win the first game 30-23, but then dropped the next three games to lose the match 3-1.
“I think our team loses the second or third game because we are tired and we are hesitant to take risks that we have taken in the first games and thereby stop playing with the intensity that we had in the first or second games,” junior Darci Leonhart explained.
After a short break, the Yeowomen took the court once again looking to end their 10 game losing streak against tiny Point Park College. After another two games to zero lead, the Yeowomen could not hold off their opponents and fell in a fifth game 15-11.
“There is no doubt that we are all fighting together to produce more wins. We definitely have confidence and faith in ourselves,” Leonhart said.
In the final match of the day, Oberlin faced conference opponent College of Wooster, but failed to play up to their expectations and fell in three straight games. Due to illness, Oberlin played the weekend’s second two games without the services of All-Conference player junior Amber Coleman.
In what has been seen as a problem on the court this season, the issue of leadership or lack of it has been raised by many supporters of the team.
“I would say that we all have our roles as far as leadership goes and what we bring to the team. I am trying to help everyone to have confidence in our team and themselves and keep attitudes up,” Leonhart said.

Heading into last night’s match with Heidelberg College, Coleman was leading the team with 1.9 digs per game, while senior Christina Morgan was leading the team with 36 blocks on the season.
Against Heidelberg, Oberlin again was able to hang close, fighting to a tie score during every game, but Heidelberg pulled away in each one, to win in three, 33-31, 30-23 and 30-23.
“It was competitive,” Morgan said of the Heidelberg match. “We’re improving. We just need to get over the hump. Nobody’s blowing us off the court.”

Looking ahead to next week, Oberlin has four home games, which have been a rarity this season. In this weekend’s action, Oberlin will face Wittenberg University and Wooster in NCAC matches.
On Monday, they will travel to Cleveland to face the Spartans of Case Western Reserve University and then will turn around and face conference stalwart Allegheny College on Wednesday night. Oberlin will be looking to gain the respect of their conference opponents.
As for the rest of the season, the Yeowomen are intent on turning it around and picking up some hard-earned wins.
“I think the rest of the season will look better. We got a lot of things sorted out this weekend. We will win another game,” Leonhart said.

October 4
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