ecticut College Volleyball team celebrated a 3-0 shutout victory against Colby College. Over 200 fans gathered at Luce Field House to support the Camels, who have since clinched a NESCAC playoff berth with their impressive 13-5 record.
For the home team, Jenny Kellogg ’19, Sam Hunter ’18 and Caroline Martin ’16 emerged as game leaders. Kellogg ripped 10 kills and six digs to lead the team to victory. Hunter landed eight kills, two aces, two assists and two digs for the hosts. And Martin, for her part, registered six kills, three aces and a pair of digs.
Conn bore a respectable hitting percentage of .348, along with three blocks and 26 digs. Colby garnered a weaker .156 hitting percentage, in addition to 2.5 blocks and 28 digs.
The game, sponsored by Conn’s Green Dot program, had added significance because players voiced their support for sexual assault prevention and response training. The Camels, joining Green Dot volunteers, organized raffles and interactive activities during the game to raise awareness of sexual assault. During one break between sets, fans were encouraged to launch volleyballs at “danger zone” red paper dots; as balls hit the red dots, players swiftly covered the circles with green paper dots. Player Alex McDevitt ’17 found the exercises particularly rewarding. She chose “to participate in the Green Dot community and participate in a Green Dot game to fight back and show all survivors of power-based personal violence that they are not alone.”
This year marked the second annual Green Dot volleyball game. The Hockey team hosted the first Green Dot game back in 2011 and, since then, Women’s Lacrosse, Men’s Soccer and Women’s Volleyball have followed suit. According to former hockey player Kevin Reich ’14, “Athletes have the ability to be leaders on campus. It was important for us to step up and say, ‘we are not going to stand for sexual assault,’” he said in a previous interview.
Green Dot, an umbrella initiative of Conn’s Think S.A.F.E. program, was created to address the findings of a sexual assault study conducted by the U.S. Justice Department. In 2007, the Justice Department found that nearly one in five college-aged students had survived sexual assault or attempted sexual assault during their college careers. With $300,000 in funding from a Justice Department grant, Conn moved to hire a full-time coordinator of sexual violence prevention and to integrate response training into the fabric of campus life. Since its implementation, nearly 20% of the Conn community has been trained in the Green Dot bystander intervention program, which arms students with the tools necessary to recognize at-risk situations. Athletes, in particular, maintain a strong presence in the program. Last season, one-third of the hockey team attended at least one of Green Dot’s six hour training sessions.
Because almost one-third of students on campus participate in a varsity sport, the involvement of athletes in Green Dot is striking. Fran Shields, the Katherine Wenk Christoffers ’45 Director of Athletics and Chair of the Physical Education Department at the College, observes that sports teams have the clout to modify perceptions of assault. “If we can educate our student-athletes, they can ‘pay it forward’ on their teams, on campus and in the broader community,” said Shields.
Incorporating Green Dot lessons into a volleyball game, volunteers aim to normalize the discussion of sexual assault. Darcie Folsom, Connecticut College’s Director of Sexual Violence and Advocacy, notices that the success of Green Dot stems from its permeation into student culture. “We don’t pretend that sexual assault isn’t an issue here; we make sure everyone knows it is an issue,” Folsom said. “That’s how we are different — we talk about it all the time.”
Emphasizing their support for the Green Dot program, the Volleyball team left their usual white and blue uniforms in the locker room to sport green attire. The match proved a success. By providing an open forum to discuss violence, the game encouraged students to think about how they may foster a more open atmosphere on campus. One spectator, Liz Cylkowski ’19, noted, “Green Dot games really demonstrate the dedication of both students and faculty to address the problem of sexual assault.” •
