On a night that saw the school attendance record broken,William and Mary let the match slip through their hands, falling 3-1 in a potential postseason matchup against Northeastern.
“It was a heart breaker,” senior middle Ginny Bray, who notched a career-high 17 kills, said, “We knew it was going to be a battle but we couldn’t finish.”
The pivotal point of the night occurred in the third set with the match tied 1-1. Senior outside hitter Erin Skipper, who recorded her second double-double on the weekend, with 10 kills and 11 digs, sailed an attack long on the right side of the net on a pass from classmate setter Cassie Crumal, who finished with 36 assists, cutting the College’s lead to 22-20.
On the following point, Skipper connected on another Crumal pass and this time scored the kill for the Tribe and gave them the momentum and the lead, 23-20.
But, the good news ended there for the Tribe.
The College gave away the next five points due to indecision on the backline, and in turn handed the third set to the Huskies. Bray attributed the inability to close the door on the Huskies in the third set to not performing in pressure situations.
“We just didn’t execute when we needed to and we weren’t aggressive at the right times,” Bray said.
Down 2-1 in the match, the Tribe needed to pull through and take the next set to stay alive – but the College could not recover.
Northeastern pummeled the Tribe with a barrage of unblocked kills that crushed any semblance of life for the College. By the time the Huskies led 12-6, the scoreboard wand the disparaging faces of the College’s lineup showed that the game was indeed slipping away.
A late 7-3 run in the set was merely trivial for the lifeless Tribe as the Huskies took the set 25-18, and the match 3-1.
“At times we played really well and at times we played really poorly and when Northeastern started to put the pressure on, we choked.” Shelton said.
