Nothing brings a team together quite like a winning streak.
Cate Desler’s Tufts University volleyball team is in the midst of a six-game winning streak. The former West Bay Athletic League Foothill Division Most Valuable Player out of Sacred Heart Prep is now excelling at the NCAA Division III level.
Cate Desler
The streak has seen Tufts surge into the upper echelon of the New England Small Collegiate Athletic Conference, currently tied for third place with two matches to play. Desler is a big reason the Jumbos are in a prime spot heading into the NESCAC tournament starting Nov. 6.
“I think we just work really well as a unit,” Desler said. “We’re all super close on and off the court. Everyone is just super competitive and just loves the sport, and just does whatever their role is during practice and during games.”
One of just three senior starters, Desler has been leading by example. And her performance through three matches for the week of Oct. 10-16 earned her the distinction as the National Volleyball Coaches Association Division III Women’s Player of the Week.
“I was very surprised,” Desler said. “I didn’t know this even existed. … It was just exciting. Hard work pays off, I guess.”
Desler averaged 7.4 kills per set through matches against Bowdoin, Amherst and Middlebury, including a double-double performance Oct. 16 in the four-set win over Middlebury, totaling 18 kills and 15 digs.
That doesn’t even account for her performance the previous week in a five-set win over Trinity. Desler went for a career-high 25 kills while adding 12 digs, a performance on par with her senior year at SHP when she regularly topped the 20-kill plateau, and twice went over the 30-kill mark in a match.
Desler has been a six-rotation contributor since her arrival at Tufts. Her collegiate debut Sept. 4, 2018, against Clark University saw her step into full-time action, and she’s been impossible to keep off the floor ever since.
“It was definitely nerve-racking,” Desler said of her freshman debut. “Definitely a different environment than high school or even club. It was just fun playing volleyball. That’s what I love. It’s just what I enjoy.”
Tufts was out of action over the past weekend, canceling three non-conference matches after the death of Madie Nicpon, a 20-year old lacrosse player at the Massachusetts university, who succumbed to injuries Oct. 16 after choking on food during a charity fundraiser.
Desler is one of three Bay Area natives on the Tufts roster. Freshman Alina Qi (Lowell-SF) and Jennifer Ryan (Sacred Heart Cathedral-SF) are both San Francisco natives. Desler said people constantly mistake her and Ryan for having attended the same high school. The truth is they never even played against one another in high school.
With the top eight teams in the NESCAC standings earning bids to the conference tournament, Tufts is already assured a postseason. The tourney winner earns an automatic berth in the NCAA Division III tournament, with as many as two at-large bids also being granted to the NESCAC.
Tufts looks to resume its winning streak this Friday in a match at Bates College, with the regular season closing Saturday.
“We’re all just rooting for each other,” Desler said of the current streak. “We’re all just having fun.”
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