The Berkeley Beacon

Issue date: 10/27/05 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Beacon photo/Samantha Baime The volleyball players psych themselves up last month in a match against MIT

It is one of sport's great clichés-a team struggles early in the season only to come together and win it all in the end. Every year, a squad in one sport or another surprises everyone by coming back from the brink.

Members of the Emerson women's volleyball team, whose record stood at 6-9 on Sept. 25, now find themselves looking ahead to the Greater Northeast Atlantic Conference (GNAC) playoffs, having won seven out of their last eight matches to move to 13-10 on the season and 6-3 in the GNAC.

Head Coach Ann Miklus said she knew it was only a matter of time before the team started winning. According to Miklus, the biggest problem the Lions faced early this year was not a lack of ability, but rather trouble meshing as a team.
"We only had three returning players so it was essentially a new team [this year]," Miklus said. "In the beginning, players were still learning about their teammates and we were playing the toughest teams. They're putting things together now."

In terms of overall skill level, the Lions are quite talented, according to junior Co-Captain Alex Porteshawver.

"It's a combination of team chemistry and just knowing where we are on of court," Porteshawver said. "We're definitely one of [the] strongest, if not the strongest, teams in the conference."

The Lions' recent success can be traced back to a match against Newbury College on Oct. 3. Emerson trailed in a game 28-22 and had already lost one game in the best of five match. But, the team came back to win 30-28, and emerged victorious in the match, three games to one. The victory moved the team to just a game under .500 and the players haven't looked back since, bringing their record above .500. Miklus's team swept its next two contests and, despite a tough loss against Lasell last week, came back to beat Becker College 3-0 in the next match.

If Emerson wins its next two games against Suffolk and Rivier, it will enter the postseason tournament as the third seed.

Even with the strong play of late, there is a consensus among the players and Miklus that they could do even better.

"We need to work on sticking through it throughout the whole 30 points," Miklus said. "Sometimes one person will fall apart and they'll all fall apart. They need to piece together the little things that we stress in practice. Those little things end up being big things in games."

The Lions said they hope there will be no such letdowns when the playoffs begin next Tuesday.

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