For the second consecutive season, the No. 3 Washington University women’s volleyball team had its hope for an 11th national title end a weekend premature. Last year, a loss in the regional final to Carthage College, which the Red and Green had defeated earlier in the year, ended Wash. U.’s championship aspirations.

An identical fate befell the 2012 Bears, whose elimination in the regional final came at the hands of No. 9 Elmhurst College, which Wash. U. had defeated in a four-set win earlier in the season.

As the top two seeds in the region, Wash. U. and host Elmhurst were expected to play each other in the regional final, and after the Bluejays survived a five-set scare against the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in the previous round, the two were slated to battle for the regional title.

With the Bears leading the first set 17-16, Elmhurst served three aces and ended the set with a 9-2 run. The Bluejays then controlled the second set, hitting .400 and opening up an eight-point lead before weathering a late Wash. U. rally and holding on for a second 25-19 victory and a two-set lead.

After Wash. U. opened the third set with a 5-3 lead behind four kills by senior Drew Hargrave, Elmhurst responded with an 8-1 run and once again played with the lead. The Bears twice drew within two points of the Bluejays later in the set but could get no closer; after saving two match points, the Bears ceded a kill to Marci Novak, and Elmhurst took the set 25-22.

“It’s a tough way to go out,” senior Kelly Pang told Student Life, “but I couldn’t be more proud of the girls I’m with and am fortunate to have had the great opportunity to be a Bear with each and every one of them…Hats off to Elmhurst; they played a great match.”

The NCAA Tournament had started well for the Bears, who sailed smoothly through a first-round matchup against College of Mount St. Joseph (25-21, 25-17, 25-13). Hargrave and junior Meghan Byrne led the Bears with 12 kills each, and freshman Allison Zastrow tallied 37 assists.

The second round was a rubber match against conference foe University of Chicago, which had split a pair of matches against Wash. U. earlier this season. In each of the first two sets, the Red and Green jumped out to large leads before the Maroons closed the gap. Yet kills by Byrne ended each of these sets 25-23, and the Bears held Chicago to a .000 hitting percentage in the third set en route to a 25-20 win and a berth in the regional final.

Hargrave and Byrne again led the Bears with 12 kills each, and both were selected to the All-Region team for their efforts throughout the weekend. Additionally, Zastrow’s 41 assists and seven digs were career highs.

Zastrow’s totals are notable as they signified a major lineup change whereby Zastrow moved to setter and senior All-American Marilee Fisher shifted from setter to defensive specialist. In recent weeks, the Bears’ back line play has been inconsistent, and the coaching staff saw a chance to upgrade the team’s defensive play without sacrificing too much in the passing game.

In Zastrow’s first extended role as setter—she had played the position sporadically earlier in the season to give Fisher rest—the team’s passing quality did not drop off significantly, but the defense still could not effectively stop Elmhurst’s attack in the loss.

The Bluejays hit .327 in the match, by far the highest mark against the Bears this season—it was the first time any opposing team had hit over .252. When the two teams met in September of this season, Elmhurst managed a mere .126.

Moreover, the Bears failed to record a team block for the first time this season as Elmhurst’s diverse attacking options—five players recorded at least seven kills—rendered Wash. U.’s normally strong block impotent and consistently a step late in its reaction to the Bluejays’ sets.

The loss was a crushing disappointment particularly to the Bears’ senior class. Already one of the most decorated in school history—Pang graduates with the most digs, Fisher with the fourth-most assists and Hargrave with the eight-most attacks in school history—it lost the opportunity to equal its greatest team accomplishment: the national championship victory it earned its freshman year.

“There are no other people I would have battled beside for this match and for the entire year,” Fisher told Student Life. “This was a hard loss at a hard time but I know we played with heart and left it all out on the court, and afterwards, I had every one of my girls right next to me. I’m proud of each and every one of my teammates and couldn’t have asked for a more passionate, hardworking group of girls to spend the season with.”

Hargrave added, “I am truly blessed to have been able to play on a team where I can honestly say that I love each and every one of my teammates with all my heart…I wouldn’t trade a single moment that I have shared with them. Bears for life.”