For the second straight season, DePauw women's volleyball's 17-game win streak was broken with a loss to Wittenberg University. DePauw lost in four sets to the visiting Wittenberg on Tuesday night.
Wittenberg is ranked 13th in the nation, with a record of 12-5 this season compared to DePauw's record that stands at 17-2 after Tuesday's loss. Despite the discrepancy in numbers, the competition is very different in the types of teams they've been up against.
In the past few seasons, the DePauw vs. Wittenberg match up has become a rivalry of sorts between the teams. They have consistently granted each other significant competition.
"As a [first-year] coming in, from the very beginning we heard about the big game versus Wittenberg," first-year Elisabeth Wilson said. "Since the start of our season, it has always been in the back of our minds. The rivalry is very intense and all of us look forward to playing against Wittenberg."
The match up began with the first game, where the volleying was intense, but DePauw just couldn't seem to hold on to the ball long enough. The final score of the first game was 25-16, with DePauw trailing. Sophomore Sanne Hilbrich said the team would not let this slow them down.
"After the first set of the match we all came together and agreed to forget it even happened. That wasn't our game, that wasn't how DePauw volleyball executes, so we came out in the second set ready to re-set and win," Hilbrich said. "After taking that game away from Wittenberg of course there was a lift in emotions but it was more of an 'Alright lets get out there and do it again!' We were confident in our abilities and we just needed to continue playing as a team."
That confidence was definitely obvious in the second game as the DePauw Tigers took their emotions from the first game and ran with them.
DePauw won the second game 25-20.
"After we won the second game, it was a really big shift in momentum," sophomore Molly Rinehart said. "And in volleyball, momentum is such a big factor to winning. The team seemed extremely optimistic after winning the second game. We all finally realized that this was a game we could definitely win."
But sadly, they did not win. The final two games were close, 25-22 and 25-23, but DePauw just couldn't seem to close what they started. The final game was 23-24 with a missed DePauw serve causing their downfall.
"Obviously, the loss was extremely hard to swallow because we know that the team is not better than us in any sense," Hilbrich said. "We just felt that we needed to be a bit more crisp with our offensive plays. One thing is for sure though: when the time comes that we play Wittenberg again, they're not going to know what hit them."
The Tigers are coming out of the match up optimistic, knowing that they will see Washington University in St. Louis on Saturday and that they can't let the loss to Wittenberg get the best of them.
"The rivalry with Wittenberg is always going to be there, they are one of the top teams in the nation," Rinehart said. "I think that since we didn't play up to our potential on our match Tuesday, we are optimistic about our next match against [Wittenberg] in the conference championship. We know we can beat them, now we just have to do it."