"That bald ref may think he’s all high and mighty up on his ladder, but when he needs his Rogaine, he’ll come running to us scientists."

These were the words of one of twenty-odd Caltech Beaver fans who made the trip to Pomona-Pitzer’s Rains Center. It is good that the Techies can come up with such uplifting comments, for there was little else at Monday night’s volleyball match that would offer any consolation. Indeed, cheers like "Beaver fever, snatch it up!" and "We’re still smarter!" were all that Caltech fans could enjoy, as the Sagehens rolled to an easy three game, 30-10, 30-24, 30-10 victory.

Yet, Monday featured a dichotomous doubleheader, in that a 4 pm game found the team facing the number 4 ranked team in the nation, Emory. Needless to say, our mighty Sagehens were no match for these Atlantans, falling to the blue-and-gold 30-16, 30-18, 30-22.

"We’re still working on that consistency thing and had difficulty with this in the first game," said coach Valerie Cowan. "I’m still dealing with some injuries on the team and so I’m trying not to overdo it on the non-conference games."

"It was good that the team was able to rebound from the first match at four o’clock. Emory is pretty strong all the way around, and we did a pretty decent job [against Emory] for probably half the match. We had a little letdown in the middle of the match, but we regained our steam and had a pretty decent last game. So I guess we carried that over into this evening’s match against Caltech," she said.

Renee Faulkner ’04, Colleen Chrisco ’02, and Vicenta Arrizon ’04 were able to nurse injuries over P-P’s week-long break, its last game being a 3-1 loss at home against Redlands.

"It was a well deserved rest, and we have seven matches in these last three weeks of our season which will be very important," added Cowan. "Vicenta’s leg is still hurting her, Colleen’s back is still hurting her, and Renee seems to be pretty much recovered."

"Patty’s been doing a good job," said Cowan. "She’s been working really hard in practice, and she’s just ready every time I need her. Every time she steps in she does a great job."

"I did something a little different in this match," Cowan noted. "In the first game I went with my normal lineup, in the second game I went with a five-and-one around Jeannie [Kenmotsu ‘05], and in our third game I went with a five-and-one around Alysha [Lascano ‘05]. It was just a way of giving them a few more setting opportunities."

Faulkner had a great match, with 11 kills and just one error in sixteen attempts (94 percent hitting accuracy), and Arrizon also performed solidly with eight kills and just three errors in sixteen attempts (81 percent hitting accuracy). Lascano had 18 assists, and Kenmotsu had nine assists and four aces.

The Caltech match "was an overall team effort," said Cowan.

In the first game against Caltech, the Sagehens came out strong. However, the second game was less impressive, as P-P seemed to play down to the Beavers’ level and allowed Caltech to come within six points of victory. This second game was much like watching little kids play in a sandbox: digging attempts had players falling all over themselves in the non-existent dirt. Sagehen hitters were knocking their shots long, while Caltech hitters could not even manage to spike the ball over the net. (One vocal Beaver supporter screamed at his team’s opponents, "You’re lucky that net is there!") Thankfully the Sagehens, leading just 25-24 in the second game, managed to rally behind the stellar serves of defensive specialist Patty Van Kuran ’03 and take the next five points. P-P then maintained its form and cruised to a 30-10 win in the final game.

"Even with the major lapse we had, we were still able to pull it off," said Cowan, who added that Caltech did step its play up somewhat in the second game in order to win some of its 24 points.

Wednesday night’s match against Chapman was less satisfying. The Panthers proved that cats, especially large black ones, can catch small birds, clawing into the Sagehens for a 30-23, 30-28, 30-27 Chapman victory. Despite the loss, P-P did play well. The team was focused throughout and played hard through to the last point.

Solid performances were had by Chrisco (11 kills, 9 digs), Faulkner (9 kills), Elena Shih ’04 (10 digs), Kenmotsu (14 assists, 8 digs), and Lascano (had 18 assists).

"It wasn’t the result we were hoping for, but it’s getting better," said Cowan. "There is improvement. We’re having longer ‘lapses of consistency’–which is good."

With Claremont-Mudd-Scripps coming up this Friday (7:30 pm gametime), Cowan believes the team has a solid chance of repeating its last performance against the Athenas, in which P-P pulled out a closely contested 3-0 away victory, September 28. Saturday, the Sagehens travel to Whittier to take on the Poets, to whom the narrowly lost 3-1, October 2.

If P-P focuses and Cowan’s joking reference to ‘lapses of consistency’ becomes a more common reality, this weekend’s matches could prove quite fruitful, and the season’s second half may get off to a good start.