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Tuesday, December 2, 2008

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Swat feasts on Bears despite injuries as season winds down

BY GENEVRA PITTMAN

In print | October 25, 2007

The women’s volleyball team got a big conference win over fall break to keep its playoff hopes slim but alive, despite dealing with the loss of two key players. With Johanna Bond ’10 nursing a wrist injury and Katie Gold ’08 suffering from the flu, Swarthmore earned a win over Ursinus College on Thursday, but then fell in two non-conference games on Saturday.

Against the Bears, the Garnet came out strong from the get-go, securing the first game 30-13 and going on to get the sweep with 30-22 and 30-19 wins in the second and third games. With two of Swarthmore’s big scorers on the bench, seniors Karen Berk and Vanessa Wells stepped up for the Garnet, with Berk recording 16 blocks and Wells 13. The Bears struggled with 25 errors in the match, as their conference record fell to 1-7 and Swarthmore improved to an even 4-4. The loss of Bond and Gold also made it possible for coach Harleigh Leach to give some players more experience and let others play less familiar positions. “We have some time to be creative,” she said.

On Saturday, the Garnet faced both Widener University and Fairleigh Dickinson College in matches at Widener, but was unable to keep up the momentum from its win earlier in the week. Swarthmore fell to the Pioneers, 27-30, 14-30, 30-14, 17-30 and then to the Devils, 19-30, 25-30, 23-30. Still, Leach was happy with the team’s level of play. “I thought we played the best we could,” she said.

Before last night’s late game against Haverford College, Swarthmore was sitting in seventh place in the conference and still holding out hope to get a playoff spot.

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