Women's Volleyball

It was not what you'd want to happen seven days before the Ivy Tournament.

For the women's volleyball team, Saturday's clash with Dartmouth should have been an easy tune-up for this weekend's tourney showdown at Cornell.

Instead, it turned into a nightmare.

For four games of the best-of-five match, the Crimson (now 9-9) was the essence of mediocrity, playing well below its potential and barely managing a split with the lowly regarded Big Green.

After the Cantabs had dropped a 16-14 decision in game four, Coach Ishan Gurdal decided that he had seen enough of his starting six.

Enter the hopes of the future, who happen to be the little used reserves of this year.

'The inexperienced second team was, to no one's great surprise, not much of a match for the hosts' first team, and the Big Green easily took the game and match.

The final line, which read 15-9, 11-15, 15-8, 14-16, 15-4, masked the true depth of the defeat. For Dartmouth to be even close in this match was surprising; for them to come out victorious was amazing.

"It was definitely not a good evening," said a dejected Co-Captian Coco Trumbull. "We dropped to their level-or worse."

The contest was the second road game in less than 24 hours for Harvard, and fatigue doubtless played a role in the loss. The spikers fell to Eastern Nazarene Quincy, Mass on Friday.

The team may have left more than just the Crusaders behind in Quincy Trumbull reported that. "People just weren't mentally prepared" for Saturday's game.

The Ivies in the not so distant future for the Crimson. If the team wants to avoid a report of last year's 1-6 showing in the tournament, it'll have to get its act together in a hurry.

The team does seem fairly upbeat considering the weekend's events, with Trumbull insisting that it's "still psyched for the Ivies."

THE NOTEBOOK The team's final pre-tourney game is against the University of Connecticut tomorrow at the Indoor Athletic Building. That game will be the last home game for seniors Trumbull, kathy wrong and Lisa Lighthouser.