Spikers Combine Power, Hustle and Thought In Opening Wins Over Yale and New Jersey

The Harvard men's volleyball team combined power, hustle and intelligence to sweep the New Jersey Institute of Technology, 15-13, 15-2, 16-14, yesterday at the IAB.

The spikers opened their season Saturday with a 3-1 triumph over Yale-in-New Haven.

New Jersey Collapse

After a hard-fought first game, New Jersey collapsed, and the 2-0 Crimson zipped to victory in the second game and took the third stanza with only two starters on the floor.

Harvard spikers David Twite, Jon Roan and Sean Doyle shot bullets through the New Jersey blocks. But the Crimson didn't rely on power alone, dropping in occasional dinks with great success.

Harvard's defensive hustle set up the offense. Back-row players got the ball to the setters, and the defense never gave up on a ball. Even when the Crimson led by 10 in the second game, the players continued to dive at every spike.

Midway through the first game. Harvard coach Mike Palm moved his blockers to the inside. New Jersey continued to try to force the ball through the middle, and Harvard blockers rejected spike after spike.

First-year walk-on Mark Chang made up for his luck of height with tremendous quickness to help anchor the blocking corps and compensate for the loss of the injured Jon Tanaka.

Chang played no organized volleyball before joining the Crimson late this fall. "He's developed so fast it's almost scary." Palm said after the match.

Tanaka, the sophomore whom Chang replaced, played for a short stretch during the second and third games, but his sprained ankle clearly inhibited his movement. Leaping as best he could. Tanaka repeatedly sent ill-timed spikes into the net.

In Saturday's game, the Crimson played to the level of its opposition--an inexperienced and impotent Eli team.

THE NOTEBOOK: "It wasn't even funny," Doyle said of Harvard's scrimmage against Columbia Saturday, explaining that the Lions couldn't even put up a fight... Palm had to take two time outs before the start of the third game as he tried to write down the numbers of the reserve-packed lineup he sent out to start. The time outs cost him, when a delay in a Harvard substitution forced the Crimson to call a time out it didn't have, and the referee awarded a point to New Jersey.