By Jim Fenton

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The 2024 Bridgewater State University volleyball season has been all about comebacks.

The Bears struggled through a 1-6 start in September, losing six consecutive matches after winning on opening night.

They rallied back from that early-season stumble and won 12 of the final 15 games, matching the program's highest win total since 2015 in the process.

Then, in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament championship game last Saturday afternoon, BSU trailed top-seeded Westfield State University, 2-0, and opened the third set in a 5-0 hole.

But just when it looked like time was running out on the Bears' season, they once again put together a rally.

BSU came back to take the third set, then won the next two sets in a memorable comeback to capture its first MASCAC tourney title since 2008.

That has earned the Bears their 11th trip to the NCAA Division III tournament and the first in 16 years.

BSU (13-9) opens the national tourney Thursday night in Baltimore, Md., against third-ranked and host Johns Hopkins University (29-2, 19 straight wins) at Goldfarb Gymnasium.

The Comeback Kids kept finding ways to overcome adversity, first in September and then with the season on the line last weekend.

"I would say we have an insane amount of grit," said sophomore setter Xin Ai Robinson (Kaiserslautern, Germany). "We know what we're capable of and we won't let people walk all over us.

"I tell the girls all the time, 'Let's be fun to watch. Let's be difficult. Let's be a difficult team to play against.' I think it's our mental toughness and the grit that we have to just pull through whatever scenario we're in."

BSU did that in September after dropping the six games in a row. The Bears opened on Labor Day with a 3-0 victory over Anna Maria at home, then lost six in a row, three of them by 3-0 scores.

All of those losses were against non-conference opponents, so the possibility of competing for a high seed in the MASCAC was not affected.

But after 12 straight losing seasons, the Bears were in a difficult rut, five games below .500 right out of the gate.

The turnaround began on Sept. 18 with a 3-0 win over Nichols, followed by victories over Curry and Mitchell.

Then came a significant win on Oct. 1 in the MASCAC opener when BSU stopped Framingham State, 3-0. The Bears had lost 19 in a row to the Rams dating back to 2010.

"We had our moments early in the season," said graduate student Bethany Votta (Cumberland, R.I.). "We got kind of down sometimes, but after the win against Framingham, it really turned around for us.

"It kind of made us realize that we can do this. We can really pull this together and win this whole thing."

The win at Framingham was followed by a win over Lesley, then MASCAC triumphs over Salem State, Worcester State and Fitchburg State. The eight straight wins marked the program's longest winning streak since 2015.

"We all knew we had the same goal," said sophomore captain Lily Welch (Hanson, Mass.). "We all knew there were kinks we needed to work out and we did.

"After that losing streak, we went on a huge winning streak. The losing streak was non-conference gamesand the winning streak was mainly conference, which mattered."

The Bears (6-1) finished a game behind Westfield State in the regular season, so the championship match was on the road.

In the previous trip to Westfield on Oct. 26, BSU fell behind, 2-0, then forced a fifth set before losing, 15-10.

The rematch for the MASCAC title began with the Owls taking the opening two sets, 25-22 and 25-9. They then scored the first five points of the third set before a kill by sophomore Ava Crane (Dartmouth, Mass.) and two by Welch stopped the run.

The Bears survived with a 25-16 third-set win, tied the match, 25-18, and never trailed in the decisive set, winning 15-13, on a kill by Welch.

"I think we just realized (after the second set) that there was nothing to lose at that moment," said Votta. "We flipped a switch. After the second set, it wasn't (looking) too good. After that, we just came back and it just clicked."

Said Welch: "I could tell it wasn't over. We played Westfield previously and we were down, 2-0, and we came back and brought it to a fifth set. We weren't able to finish it, but in the championship, it brought out the fight in us."

Just like in September, there was no panic, no thinking that it was a hopeless cause.

BSU rallied to win three straight sets while facing elimination and is back in the NCAAs for the first time in 16 years.

"It was calming for me," said Robinson of how she felt after two sets. "I knew that we were going to be able to bounce back. I had that trust in everybody that we were going to be able to do this regardless of anything that happened."

Coach Tony daSilveira had his team ready for the challenge, even if it meant winning three sets on the road with no margin for error.

"We talked (in timeouts) in set one and set two, and we get blown out in set two," he said. "Everything's getting drained. I said, 'No more talking. Let's go back and enjoy every play. This book could end in three chapters or five. Let's see where this book ends.'

"Then we were down, 0-5, in that third set and it was like, we can do this. We're in the Westfield gym, we've got plenty of options (on the team), do our next job. I told them, 'I believe in you, don't forget your belief in each other.'"

And that formula helped produce a season-saving comeback for the ages for the Bears.