Women’s volleyball had a rough time on the road, losing three of their four matches at an Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Invitational this past weekend. The Mules played hard and kept the scores close in each set but fell to three separate opponents in the two-day tournament.

Friday night the Mules left the court with a 3-0 win over Newbury College. Colby came off strong in the victory, taking the sets 25-14, 25-19, 25-17. The struggle came only later in the night when the Mules battled back and forth with MIT, eventually losing 25-22, 25-20, 25-22. Heading into Saturday’s matches, the Mules were an optimistic 1-1 for the weekend. They fell to Endicott College 3-1 on Saturday, Sept. 24.

The final set scores were 26-24, 21-25, 25-20 and 26-24. Later in the day, the Mules lost 25-20, 25-12, 25-22 to Frostburg State, landing them at 1-3 for the weekend.

Despite the final scores of the last two matches, the Mules played exceptionally well on Saturday and had the stats to show for it.

Sophomore Kate Pleasants had 47 assists and nine digs, and junior Emily Varni had five ace serves in the match against Endicott. Junior Maggie Taylor and sophomore Lily Kramlich-Taylor led a strong offense with 17 and 13 kills, respectively.

Taylor continued her scoring streak against Frostburg with nine kills. Senior captain Caitlin Burchill had nine kills in each Saturday match. The Mules are currently 5-4 for the season.

“I am extremely proud of how we played this weekend. Although we came out of the tournament 1-3, we played some of the best teams in New England and we were right there with them fighting back and forth for each point,” Burchill said.

The losses only further motivate the Mules for next week’s New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) matches against Bates College, Connecticut College and Tufts University. “While it would have been nice to finish and take one of two more wins in our close matches against MIT and Endicott, the weekend definitely fires us up to play Bates for the second time this Tuesday,” Burchill concluded.