Men's Volleyball Sweeps No. 14 Ball State at Home

There’s no place like home for the Harvard men’s volleyball team (1-2). In its first win of the winter season, the Crimson defeated No. 14 Ball State (4-1) in a sweep at its home opener at the MAC on Friday afternoon.

“It was great to get the first win at home, in our first attempt,” senior middle blocker Caleb Zimmick said. “It was nice to have a crowd on our side cheering us on. It's always easier to play in your home gym too. We are always motivated to win at home and I think this was a very good start.”

This was only the second meeting between the two teams in program history, with Harvard looking to avenge last year’s five set loss and tie up the series against the Cardinals.

“We felt really good coming into the match last night,” Zimmick said. “After a really solid week of practice and strong play last weekend, we were hopeful and confident that we could get our first win of the year. It was great to host a really talented, undefeated team in our first home match and come away with the win.”

The Crimson showed up to the match attack-minded, with sophomore outside hitter Casey White leading the team with a near double-double. He had 12 kills—including a string of three in a row—nine digs, and had a .632 hitting percentage.

White’s older brother, senior outside hitter DJ White contributed seven kills and 12 digs of his own, junior outside hitter Brandon Clemens also had seven kills, and Zimmick rounded out the offense with six kills.

“I think we played amazing as a team,” Clemens said. “Defensively we put a bunch of pressure on their pin hitters and caused many of their starters to be pulled. We simply executed well.”

The offense had a .300 hitting percentage, and outpaced the Cardinals in kills, hitting percentage, digs, and aces. Harvard only had 19 errors (nine service and 10 attack), while Ball State finished with 30 miscues (13 service and 17 attack).

Zimmick led the defense with five blocks, more than half of the eight total blocks the Crimson had. The team held the Cardinals to just a .122 hitting percentage.

“I think that with this win we will be able to take the feeling of executing and playing clean volleyball in all aspects of the game moving forward,” said Clemens. “We know what the feeling is like to play very crisp volleyball which will be essential for the tough conference matches we have ahead of us.”

Harvard started out slow in the first set, trailing Ball State by four points, but went on a 9-4 run to take the lead. From there, the Crimson never looked back, taking the first set 25-19.

The Crimson’s momentum carried over into the second set, where it took an early lead. The Cardinals then took a timeout, hoping to break the momentum. This proved unsuccessful, as Harvard went on a 7-0 run after the break.

Ball State climbed back into the game, cutting the lead to single digits, but the younger White had three kills that cemented Harvard’s 25-14 win in the second set.

By the third set, the teams were trading leads back and forth, and eventually tied at 10 points apiece. After that point, though, the Crimson took control of the game, with kills by DJ White and Clemens propelling the team to a 5-1 scoring run and a 25-17 win to complete the sweep.

“Ball St. beat Penn St. last weekend and so we know that we can play with one of the best teams in our conference and compete for a league title,” Zimmick added. “We also have a better picture of what we have to work on moving forward.”

—Staff writer Katherine H. Scott can be reached at katherinescott@college.harvard.edu