For the GW volleyball team, Sunday afternoon’s game against Atlantic 10 rival La Salle is emblematic of the Colonials’ up-and-down season. GW, now 9-9 overall and 2-2 in conference play, traded games and momentum with the Explorers before losing 3-2 the fifth and deciding game.

The loss for GW was its second in 27 meetings with La Salle, dating back to 1979. Senior captain Janine Brown said that La Salle played as expected, but GW could not maintain the consistency needed to win.

“We knew exactly how they usually come out and play,” said Brown, who recorded 21 digs and a team-high 19 points. “We didn’t match the level of intensity and play that we should have.”

The match featured the return of sophomore setter Madelyn Bagby, who entered midway through the first game and remained in the lineup for the duration of the match. Bagby made her first appearance of the season after recovering from a leg injury, leading the Colonials with 52 of the team’s 69 assists while establishing a career-high in digs with 11.

Although the position of setter demands a finely tuned chemistry and Bagby has considerably less experience than senior Jess Buche, who she replaced, Brown said Bagby is not an unfamiliar commodity.

“It’s different having another setter out there because they’re all slightly different,” Brown said. “We practice with her every day so we all know exactly how she works.”

The match was back-and-forth, but each individual game seemed to have its own momentum. The Colonials appeared to be in control heading into the final game, but any notion of a carryover was disproved after GW quickly fell behind 4-1, forcing head coach Jojit Coronel to call a timeout.

“We were pretty optimistic going into each game,” Brown said. “We needed to be focused and to be strong – we were able to do that in certain areas and not in others.”

The loss to La Salle was countered by a 3-2 win Friday against Temple, GW’s first in nine years. Junior Liz Moult led the Colonials with 16 points, as GW won by the slimmest possible margin (15-13) in the deciding game.

Temple’s style, Brown said, is to take control of the match by dictating the pace.

“Temple’s a team that will lull you to sleep with their play because they play very slowly,” Brown said. “Our main focus was to stay energized – that’s the one thing we’ve been trying to do for the four years I’ve been here, and I think we finally did that.”