Wednesday, September 11th, at 5:00 PM in the Amsler Campus Gym, the MCLA Trailblazers took on the Vermont State University Castleton in a heated volleyball match that left both teams nail-bitingly grappling for victory until the very last moment.
Coming off of one of their best seasons in years during the 2023 volleyball season, the Trailblazers have had a lot to prove this year in order to show that their excellence last season was not some sort of fluke, and despite a rocky start to the ‘24 season (a string of five straight losses), they did not intend to go down in this match. The Trailblazers would either win, or they would go down fighting.
Starting off the first set, Beth Harris ‘27 immediately sent a difficult serve into the other team’s back row, forcing the Castleton libero to step in and send a pass up to the front row. Despite a short back-and-forth volley, the other team scored the first point of the game off of a spike that the Trailblazers were unable to save.
The Vermont Castleton would then follow up this 1-0 lead with another four straight points before MCLA would score their first point of the match. MCLA would not prove to go on a scoring streak of their own, and they were forced to call their first timeout at a 7-1 deficit. However, this timeout would not serve to be fruitful, as MCLA would go down in match one losing at a score of 25-10.
Heading into Match 2, the Trailblazers seemed surprisingly heartened. During the break before the match actually began, the girls were chatting with each other, exchanging laughs, and generally maintaining a bright spirit.
This energy seemed to be present in the crowd as well, particularly for Jackie Cohen ‘27, who was attending her first ever volleyball game that night. In an interview after the fact, she announced the following: “I mean, I know we lost that first set pretty bad, but the intensity was off the charts and it looked like everybody was having so much fun.”
Continuing, she also said, “I loved watching our team communicate so well, even when they were in a losing position.”
Despite the Trailblazers’ sunny disposition heading into Game 2, the Vermont Castleton would take an early lead, scoring the first point and following it up with a flurry of scores. It seemed to be a case of deja vu, with the other team taking a large point-gap over the Trailblazers before forcing them to call a timeout at a 10-2 deficit.
This time, the timeout served to reset the Trailblazers’ mental game. After the short break, they came back and began filling the deficit, with setter Shannon O’Brien ‘26 setting up middle hitter Caroline Schmaling ‘27 with some particularly difficult-to-save hits.
They would bring the score up to 14-9 in Vermont’s favor before the other team found an answer to the puzzle the Trailblazers had presented them with and began to tip the scoring chances back in their own favor once more.
Despite bringing out a better performance in Game 2, the Trailblazers would lose their second straight match at a much more competitive score of 25-19.
With the match victories now being 2-0, the Trailblazers would have to win two straight sets in a row in order to even force a tiebreaker against the seemingly impenetrable Vermont Castleton, and then they would have to win that match as well to ultimately gain the game victory. All said and done, they would have to win three straight sets in a row to pull out a win.
Cohen, once again sharing her thoughts after the match was over, recalled feeling a sense of calmness during this time. “I wasn’t very scared going into [the next set]. I wasn’t sure at first if I was going to be fully into it, but when we were down 2-0, I was excited to see where it was going to end up.”
Cohen, and her fellow audience members, would not have had to wait long to see where set 3 was going to take them, as, after another short break, it started with yet another first point going to the ladies from Vermont.
Although Castleton took a quick lead over the Trailblazers, once the score was 6-3, the tides began to change.
Now, it was MCLA’s women who stormed forth to secure a flurry of points against the Castleton women. It didn’t take long for them to tie the set up at 6-6, and then, incredibly, for the first time the entire night thus far, it was MCLA who took a lead over Castleton.
As MCLA extended their lead to 12-8, Castleton was forced to call their first timeout of the night.
Spirits were soaring in the audience, as audience members continued cheering and hollering for the entirety of the timeout, screaming their support for their fellow Trailblazers.
Ethan Wood, ‘27, in yet another interview after the fact, remembered “feeling like I was gonna lose my voice. I wanted to show support for the people on the team that I cared about.”
Alongside his praise for the Trailblazers, Wood also noted the lack of upperclassmen playing on the court. “I think it’s a good opportunity for the freshmen,” he said, “but I was also hoping to see a little more variety in who was playing during each set.”
Once the timeout was over, MCLA dashed Castleton’s hopes of resetting the playing field, getting another seven straight points, interrupted only by a handful of scores from Castleton, before serving out of bounds and moving the play back to Vermont’s favor.
It wouldn’t take long before MCLA won their first set of the night, gaining the winning point off of a beautiful serve from Harris, followed by yet another set from O’Brien into a hit from Schmaling. The final score of this set was 25-19.
Despite knowing they’d have to win two more sets in a row in order to secure a victory against the Vermont Castleton, the Trailblazers had their chins up heading into the fourth set. This attitude would prove to be fruitful for them, as they quickly took a 13-6 lead over Castleton. Their point streak ended only as a result of a speedy spike landing just out of bounds.
Here, Castleton began closing the gap, scoring six points in a row and bringing the score up to 13-12 in MCLA’s favor before play moved back over to the Trailblazers.
At 21-14, Castleton was once again made to call a timeout and attempt to scramble back into the game.
Thus proceeded yet another nerve-wracking comeback from the other team, with them bringing the score to 23-20 in MCLAs favor before the Trailblazers were able to close out the set, pocketing a second win and forcing a tiebreaker.
“At this point, it started feeling like all hands on deck. It wouldn’t have been as bad if we had lost three nothing, but if we had the chance to bring the game back and we lost during the fourth set, that would have sucked,” Cohen said, upon being asked to hear her thoughts during this point in the night. “I was super stoked when we were able to make the game go to a fifth set.”
In volleyball, if a match goes to a fifth set, it only goes to fifteen points instead of 25. This meant the girls had to score less points to win, but, on the flipside, that also meant they had less room for error.
The fifth set started off strong, with both teams scoring in the same back-and-forth manner that had become so familiar thus far. 1-0 in Castleton’s favor. 2-0 in Castleton’s favor. 2-1. 3-1. 3-2. At this point, the other team failed a spike, casting the ball into the net and allowing the Trailblazers to tie the game up at 3-3.
Despite their best efforts, the Trailblazers’ luck would take a turn for the worse, with them scoring just one more point in the entire match before tragically falling 15-4.
“I can’t say I was disappointed,” said Cohen. “I had a blast watching everyone, both on the team, or on the bleachers, rooting for each other and hoping for the best. That’s something I wasn’t expecting before seeing my first volleyball game here.”
When asked if she was interested enough to continue coming to watch volleyball games at the school, Cohen answered with a resounding “Yes!”.
It was a tough-fought game between the Trailblazers and Castleton, and despite the fact that MCLA lost, sparks of the team they were during their 2023 season cropped up throughout the match.
Should they continue harnessing the pieces of their gameplay that work well for them (such as the killer duo of O’Brien and Schmaling, Harris’ serves, and their libero’s saves), then it seems the future of their season could be in good hands.
