Dec. 16, 2004

Every season has a turning point....A time where the group can either pack up and call it a season, or a point where the team comes together as a group and turns the season around. For the 2004 Bulldogs, their turning point came after losing both ends of a Harvard/Dartmouth road trip to fall to 8-7 overall, 3-4 in the Ivy and 0-6 on the road. While the situation looked bleak, the Bulldogs refused to give in and turned the tide of the season the following week at Princeton.

Yale took the first game 30-25 before dropping the next two 25-30 and 24-30, leaving Yale one game away from a seventh consecutive road loss. In game four, the Bulldogs pulled out an emotional 37-35 win and parlayed that momentum into a 15-4 win in game five to pull out the victory. The win was the first of seven consecutive victories the Elis would rip off in order to claim a share of the Ivy League Championship and force a four-way playoff to earn the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA tournament.

With four teams finishing the regular season with 10-4 records in the Ivy League, Yale headed to the Viniar Center on the campus of Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., for a playoff with Cornell, Harvard and Princeton.

The Bulldogs drew the Crimson in the opening round and promptly lost the first game, and then found themselves in a nine point hole in the second game as they trailed 24-15. Yale's moxie would again show as the Elis took 11 of the next 13 points to knot the score at 26 before going on to win 30-28 en route to defeating the Crimson in five games.

Yale's second round opponent was the Cornell Big Red, who defeated Princeton in three games in the opening round. The Bulldogs sprinted out to an easy win in game one on the strength of an 11-1 run before the Big Red fought back and took the second game. The Bulldogs held a 27-23 lead in game three, but Cornell fought back to force a deuce game and won 32-30. With ther season on the line Yale squeezed out a 30-28 victory in game four to set up an all-or-nothing game five with the Ivy League Championship and an NCAA tournament berth at stake.

Game five was highly contested as the Bulldogs and Big Red fought to a tie score on 10 different occasions including the final tie of the game at 14-14. The toughness that Yale had shown throughout the close of the regular season reared its head once again, as the Bulldogs took the final two points of the match and clinched the school's first NCAA tournament berth.

With a bid to the NCAA tournament secured after winning the Ivy League Championship, the team gathered in a conference room in Yale's Ray Tompkins House in order to watch the NCAA selection show to see where they would be placed for the first two rounds. To the surprise of all in attendance, the Elis found out that it would be a short trip, as Yale was to host its section of the bracket in the John J. Lee Amphitheater just next door with Minnesota, Albany and Long Island traveling to New Haven.

With a spirited crowd of 916 in the stands, and a fired up Bulldog squad, Yale's first-ever NCAA tournament game was set to begin with the America East champion Albany Great Danes on the other side of the net. Yale started its NCAA tournament match in fine fashion, as first team All-Ivy selection Jacqueline Becker aced the first two points of the match en route to an inspired 30-28 win. The Elis would build upon their momentum and take game two easily by the score of 30-21. Albany wouldn't go down without a fight, as the Great Danes clawed their way to a 33-31 victory in game three. The huge home crowd advantage proved too much in game four, as Yale won the match with a 30-22 victory.

Yale played well in all facets of the game, as four players registered double-digit digs, and three players had at least 10 kills. Anja Perlebach led the way on defense with 26 digs while Shannon Farrell added 10 of her own to go along with a team-best 18 kills. The win marked the first by any Ivy League team in the NCAA tournament.

Any hopes of further advancement in the tournament would be dashed in the second round when the fifth-ranked and eventual NCAA runner up Minnesota Golden Gophers eliminated Yale from the tournament in three games, handing the Bulldogs just their second loss at home.

2004 was a banner year for the women's volleyball program. Yale rebounded from a 3-4 start in Ivy League play to claim a share of the regular season title, and then won a four-team playoff to win the automatic bid into the NCAA tournament. The Bulldogs won 10 consecutive matches before running into Minnesota, and lost only twice in 12 home matches.