Colgate volleyball kicked into high gear, playing four matches in eight days and bringing home two wins. The team traveled to Bucknell on Friday, ctober 10 to face the Bison, and then brought the excitement home to Cotterell Court for the next three matches, including Volleyball Family Weekend on the 17 and 18.

The Colgate volleyball lost 3-0 to Bucknell. Sets one and two saw Colgate battling to the very end, losing the first, 22-25 and the second, 23-25. The Raiders came out strong at the beginning of set three, taking a 3-0 lead, but were unable to take it up to the next level, and set three was finalized with a score of 17-25.

“We came out really flat and overconfident, and I think Bucknell was an eye-opening loss for our players. From that loss we’ve gotten better as a team, as indicated by our record this past week. We played three really strong matches against three very strong opponents and went 2-1,” Head Coach Ryan Baker said.

And bounce back they did. Against Cornell on Tuesday, October 14, the Raiders fired up and took control of the match after losing the first set, 25-14.

“Any time you play a league rival midweek it becomes a more challenging match than normal. Cornell was very tall in the front row, and we played very good defense that night,” Coach Baker said.

Senior Captain Jackie Adlam brought up a team-high 14 digs from the back, but it wasn’t just the defense in the spotlight. Junior setter Meghan Fanta dished out 47 assists, setting a new school record for all-time assists at 2,916. Helping her out were senior Captain Katrina Zawojski with 15 kills, senior Captain Merryl Pohl with 13 and sophomore middle blocker Casey Ritt with 12. The match ended after the four sets with the final scores being 14-25, 25-20, 25-23 and 25-22.

Last Friday, the Raiders smashed Navy in three dominating sets: 25-13, 25-14 and 25-11.

“Friday versus Navy was one of the most fun matches we’ve played. We were in the zone the whole time…and I think part of that fire came from knowing that we would be the team to knock them out of the tournament,” Zawojski said.

In the back row, Adlam brought up 16 digs for a team-high. Fanta posted 30 assists, setting up Zawojski and First-year middle blocker Kaylee Dougherty, who each put down 13 kills.

“It was the most dominating offensive night I’ve witnessed as a coach. After set one, we were hitting .780…out of 19 swings 15 were kills, with no hitting errors. We ended the night hitting .512, which may be a record. I attribute that to good passing and setting choices, Coach Baker said.

Against American last Saturday, Colgate put up a vigorous fight but ended up losing in three sets to the Eagles.

“We tried to carry that momentum into the meet versus American, but unfortunately we didn’t start really believing we could get that “W” until too late. And that does sting, so we are really looking forward to playing them again,” Zawojski said.

The Raiders posted a team total of 43 defensive digs, led by Adlam with 13 and followed by Zawojski with 10. Governing the Colgate offense was Zawojski, pounding 13 kills, and Ritt right behind her chipping in 10 kills. Fanta tossed up 16 assists, while first-year setter Blaire Safir contributed another 11.

“We fought the entire night with American. In the first set we were tied 22-22, and in the third set we were up 21-16. We did not make the big plays at the big times. As a team we hope we get to see American once again in the Patriot League Tournament,” Coach Baker said.

The final scores of the match were 22-25, 16-25 and 23-25. The Colgate Raiders will resume play tonight at Lehigh at 7 p.m. The following day, the Raiders will travel east to Lafayette. Anything less than a sweep of these PL foes will be damaging for Colgate’s hopes of obtaining a high seed in the playoffs, but the Raiders have shown that they are up to the task of defeating these teams, as they swept both last season.