Volleyball stages dramatic comeback to win UAA title

| Senior Editor

As the pass from the back row floated near the net, senior Allison Zastrow stutter-stepped and bounced lightly toward it, surveying the court around her.

She saw the ball arcing down to meet her hands, just inside the six-foot line; she saw junior middle Caroline Dupont begin a sprint in a tight circle around her left shoulder, on a play that had been working all day; and she saw Emory University’s opposing middle stuck flat-footed in the center of the court, too far from the corner to meet Dupont at the net.

She saw the winning play unfolding, and a heartbeat later, Zastrow jumped to redirect the ball, lofting it behind her toward the charging Dupont. The setter passed and pivoted, turning on the corner of the big, bold yellow “R” on the middle of the court, and watched Dupont’s attack drift over the arms of a lone Emory blocker and past the middle too late to recover, before dropping to the floor in front of two sliding defenders.

Zastrow threw her arms up in celebration and searched for someone to hug, only to find herself knocked to the floor by a delirious sleuth of Bears mobbing their victorious teammates at the corner of the “R.” It was her 51st assist of the match, but none was more refreshing than this one, on the point that completed a remarkable Washington University comeback and gave the Bears their first conference title in four years.

Minutes later, the corner of that big yellow “R” was covered by a strip of red carpet, hastily rolled on the floor to host the newly crowned University Athletic Association volleyball champions. This time, Zastrow received not a back-row pass but a shiny new plaque for the school trophy case.

“It was an overwhelming sense of joy. Just knowing that we did it together—looking around and everybody was there, and it was something that was very special,” Zastrow gushed.

The win ended the Bears’ longest-ever conference title drought; they had last collected hardware in 2011, when they came back from two sets down to defeat Emory 15-8 in the fifth set.

On Saturday, the third-ranked 2015 Bears did their champion predecessors one better: After coming back from two sets down against No. 1 Emory, they won the final set by a 15-7 margin to complete a 21-25, 17-25, 25-21, 25-23, 15-7 victory.

For the third time this season, Wash. U. lost the first two sets, and for the third time, the Bears stormed back to win in five. All other teams in the Division III top-10 have won four such comebacks combined this year, in 20 attempts.

“I felt a sense of calm about the whole thing, very confident even when things were going poorly,” Zastrow said. “We’ve done it before…We’ve encountered every scenario, and we’ve been successful in basically every scenario.”

But for a time, the success was all on Emory’s side of the net, and it looked like the Eagles were poised to swoop onto the red carpet.

Emory capitalized on a bevy of Wash. U. mistakes in gaining their lead. The Bears totaled 20 combined attack and service errors in the first two sets, gifting the Eagles nearly half of the points they needed to stake a two-set lead.

In both sets, Emory turned a close score into victory thanks to a late rally: a 3-0 streak to end the first set and a 5-0 run to finish the second.

The Eagles’ offense was also outpacing the Bears’ from all corners of the court. There was Emory taking a two-set lead with an ascendant attack that flummoxed the Bears’ blocking; there were the Eagles opening an early 10-3 rout in the fourth against a disoriented Wash. U. defense. There was Emory with a pair of powerful kills late in that set, putting the Eagles just three points from victory.

But with the Bears just a set—and then just three points—from heartbreak, the match’s early pattern flipped. In the third, it was Wash. U. that ended the set with three straight points, and in the fourth, the Bears slowly chipped away at their early deficit until Emory posted four errors in five points to give Wash. U. the advantage.

From there, the teams traded points until an ace from freshman Natalie Stephanus and a tipped kill from senior Nkiru Udenze evened the match at two sets each.

“In the first two sets, we were playing very tense,” senior Jackie Nelligan said. “We play so much better when we are relaxed and when we’re having fun and celebrating together.”

In the final set, indeed, it was the Bears who looked the more relaxed and fit team, and Wash. U. was error-free, while Emory tallied more errors than kills.

Because a team needs only 15 points to win a fifth set, as opposed to 25 in the first four, “It’s three mini games to five, and we do that in practice every single day,” Nelligan said. “You don’t have time if you’re down to try to come back, so getting that momentum early is huge.”

Nelligan won that first game to five almost by herself. At 2-1, she combined with junior Rexi Sheredy for a block before coming up with a solo stop on the next point, and after the teams traded points, Nelligan posted a kill of her own to boost the Bears’ lead to 6-2.

After an Emory timeout, Wash. U. retained its four-point advantage, eventually building it to 12-5 on a solo block from Zastrow. From there, Wash. U. succeeded where Emory failed a set earlier: Three points from a title, they converted the chance, and Dupont’s final kill brought the Bears’ bench running in from the sideline.

Beyond a part of the celebration, the bench players were a large part of the team’s fifth-set performance, Nelligan said, as the Bears looked just a step faster than their Eagle counterparts.

“They were going nuts, and being on the court and having that support—it makes you forget that you’re tired, and it just gets the rush of adrenaline,” Nelligan said.

While the Bears said they were excited about the UAA title for its own sake, they were devoted more to looking beyond the end of the conference season and hope to continue their high level of play in the opening rounds of the NCAA Division III tournament next weekend.

“This is what we’re capable of,” Nelligan said. “Obviously we’re celebrating this…but also it’s looking forward to the next couple of weeks and what those have in store.”

As Zastrow reiterated, the Bears have encountered every scenario and know how to respond in each one.

But after Saturday’s dramatic comeback, there was one new situation in which these Bears hadn’t found themselves before: filing onto a red carpet after winning a title. As the national tournament approaches, that taste of a trophy only whetted their appetite for more.

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