This past weekend, Case Western Reserve University’s women’s volleyball team participated in the University Athletic Association Championship Tournament, where they attained the sixth place title. All three games were held at CWRU in the Veale Center. 

The first match against the University of Chicago ended with a tight 3-2 loss.

The opening set remained neck-and-neck throughout the entire match until the Spartans ended victorious with a score of 26-24. 

The second match had a different intensity level in comparison. Chicago gained an early lead of 10-2, but the Spartans went on a 14-5 run and gained the advantage over Chicago at 16-15. The teams remained close for the rest of the set, but CWRU remained resilient and prevailed once again, earning the set win 25-22.

The Spartans lost their momentum in the third set and were unable to close the gap, as Chicago took their first win of the match with a score of 25-13. 

The fourth and fifth sets were very close with final scores of 25-23 and 15-11, respectively, both in favor of Chicago.

Following this loss, the Spartans were slated to play against Brandeis University in the consolation semifinals. 

Fortunately, the Spartans were triumphant against Brandeis, taking the match 3-1. 

The Spartans came out of the gates with high intensity and never looked back in the first set, earning the set win with a score of 25-18. 

The second set started off much tighter. However, Brandeis gained an insurmountable lead of 18-11. The final score of the second set was 25-17 in favor of Brandeis, which would prove to be their first and only win of the game. 

The final two sets were both close, with final scores of 25-20 and 25-22 in favor of the Spartans. 

The women’s volleyball season came to an end after the 5th place match at the championship, concluding with an unfortunate loss of 3-0 against Washington University in St. Louis’s Bears. 

The Bears took on an early lead in the first set after scoring the first two points. After trading kills with Washington for the first part of the set, the Spartans finally gained a 10-9 advantage. The first set remained roughly neck-and-neck all the way through. Ultimately, though, the Bears pulled through with the final two points that ended the set 28-26. 

The second set also started with an early lead from the Bears, who maintained a stranglehold on the Spartans throughout the entire set. With the second set ending with a final score of 14-25 in favor of the Bears, the third set became the deciding round of the match.

  The beginning of the third set provided some glimmer of hope, as both teams were tied at 2. However, this hope was short-lived as the Bears quickly pulled ahead until they attained an unreachable lead, winning the set with a score of 17-25 and earning 5th place at the tournament.

The volleyball team concluded their season with a 13-14 overall record, including a 2-5 conference record.  Though the season ended with a somewhat disappointing finish at the conference championships, the team consistently showed great potential to improve their standing in future seasons.