After reeling off eight wins in its first 10 matches, the Wooster volleyball team seemed ready to assert that it was one of the top teams in the conference.
However, the team learned this weekend that despite jumping out to one of its best starts in years, there is still plenty of room for improvement this season ó and the road to the conference championship still goes through arch-rival Wittenberg University.
Wittenberg and Hiram College have historically been the No. 1 and No. 2 programs in the North Coast Athletic Conference. While the Scots have regularly been able to handle the rest of the conference with relative ease, the Tigers and Terriers have consistently posed problems for the Scots. This past weekend was no different.
The team traveled to the campus of Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa. for an NCAC match with Kenyon College and Earlham College, as well as Wittenberg and Hiram. On Saturday, the team was able to make quick work of both the Quakers and the Ladies, winning both matches in three sets apiece.
Neither Earlham nor Kenyon was able to muster much of a fight against the Scots. The Quakers croaked against the Scots, losing in not-so-dramatic fashion as Wooster controlled all three sets, winning 25-12, 25-21 and 25-18. In the second match against Kenyon, the hapless Ladies were no match for the Scots as Wooster prevailed by scores of 25-22, 25-14 and 25-18.
The Scots knew going in, however, that tougher assignments were in store the following day, and couldnít muster up a set victory against either Hiram or Wittenberg. In the first match against Hiram, the Scots proved that they could hang with Hiram, keeping all three sets close (21-25, 26-28 and 23-25). However, after each set, the Scots were on the wrong side of the deficit.
Wittenberg, the cream of the NCAC crop, handled the Scots with relative ease in the final match, winning by scores of 18-25, 21-25 and 13-25. The losses snapped an eight-game winning streak for the Scots. Both the Tigers and Terriers, who did not face each other during the weekendís play, ran the table over the weekend and cemented their status as the teams to beat in the conference once again.
The Scots will not have to wait long for a chance at payback. They travel west to Springfield, Ohio, tonight for their second match against the Tigers in five days. The Scots will yet again have their hands full with the odds-on favorite to win the NCAC.
After tonightís game, the team will have a favorable schedule for the rest of October. The remaining schedule features the six teams (Kenyon, Earlham, Allegheny, Denison University, Oberlin College and Ohio Wesleyan University) the Scots have proven that they can beat.
It would not be unlikely to see the Scots hit another eight-game roll later this month against NCAC competition it has routinely handled over the past few years.