Home is where the heart is –– and for the volleyball team, it’s also where the wins were. With two losses this weekend on the road to finish up the season, the Red missed out on a road win during Ivy League play. But having managed a near .500 mark at home, the Red finishes 3-11 and tied for sixth place with Columbia.

Cornell (6-19, 3-11 Ivy) started the weekend with a 3-0 loss to Brown (6-18, 2-11). After losing to the Red 3-1 earlier in the season, the Bears were able to take a 25-18, 25-18, 25-17 win at home. Despite leading 6-1 in the first set, Cornell was never able to hold another lead and fell in straight sets.

The Bears were led by Katrina Post and Brianna Williamson, who totaled 21 kills with just five errors between them. Danielle Vaughn also registered seven kills with no errors for a .583 hitting percentage. As a team, the Bears hit .291 to Cornell’s .150 mark.

The Red offense was spread out, as nine different individuals tallied a kill. Junior outside Alessa Cekauskas led the group with nine kills, followed by freshman Deveney Pula and senior captain Juliana Rogers. Senior Jessica Misse had five kills and five total blocks for the Red in the middle.

Senior captain Megan Mushovic had a game-high 19 digs.

“This weekend we just couldn’t get into our system,” Mushovic said. “Our serve receive started off rocky versus Brown and we didn’t recover.”

Cornell was also unable to recover against Yale, again falling in straight sets –– 25-14, 25-15, 25-11. Against Yale’s league-leading offense and defending Ivy Player of the Year Cat Dailey, the Red just wasn’t able to keep up.

“Versus Yale, they executed their game very well,” Mushovic said. “We played with them in the beginning but then dug ourselves into a hole. Yale’s not a team that lets you get out easily.”

Yale proved that, getting out to an early lead and never looking back. Dailey registered a game-high 12 kills with a .500 hitting percentage as part of a .275 night for the Bulldogs. Cornell managed 23 kills while again spreading out the offense with eight players registering kills.

While the Red’s offense struggled to get on track, Mushovic again spearheaded Cornell’s defense and finished with a team-high 16 digs. The senior finished her final year with 428 digs, but more impressively ended with 2040 career digs –– the most in Ivy League history and 263 more than second-ranked Tomo Nakanishi ’99 out of Brown.

For the senior captain, however, individual accomplishments are overshadowed by the team she was a part of for four years and the progression Cornell volleyball has gone through this season.

“It’s obviously a disappointment –– a long losing streak is not how you want to leave the program,” Mushovic said. “It’s not exactly the impression you want to leave. However, I think everyone has learned from it and will be stronger for it next year. We definitely have built some character.”

Rogers and Misse also played in their final games for Cornell this weekend. The classmates controlled the middle for the Red all season, as Rogers totaled 144 kills and 60 total blocks –– third and first on the team, respectively. Returning after sitting out two seasons due to injury, Misse added 102 kills and 42 total blocks, good for fourth and second for the Red.

Though the trio will not be with the Red next season, they certainly left their mark on the program, as all three were part of the 2006 championship team.