Jumbos Jar Spikers

The Harvard women's volleyball lost a tough, four-set match to Tufts University last night at the Malkin Athletic Center.

The loss dropped the Crimson's record to 2-4.

"Harvard played a really good game. They lacked the experience," Tufts Coach Bob Fareau said. "If they could have eliminated some mistakes, they would have won."

In the first set, the Crimson jumped ahead, 4-0, when Manda Schossberger drilled one down the sideline. But the Jumbos did one better than the Crimson, rallying for eight straight points to grab an 8-4 lead.

Despite tallying four more times to tie the score at 8-8, Harvard could muster only three points the rest of the opening set, and the Jumbos triumphed 15-11.

The Crimson took a 9-6 lead in the second set when Suzie Tapson spiked one down the middle of the floor. But Tufts fought back to tie the game at 12-12, and was once again too much for Harvard down the stretch, pulling out a 15-13 victory.

"We played a terrible match. We played sloppy, unorganized, and effortless ball, and we paid for it," Harvard Coach Wayne Lem lamented. "Tufts played a steady and consistent game--they had less mistakes. We hope to bounce back Saturday against Smith."

In the third set, Harvard's Jodi Cassell shanked one off of a Jumbo defender to give the spikers a 5-4 advantage. But the lead quickly disappeared, as Tufts rallied to pull ahead 9-5.

Harvard fought back to tie the third set at 10-10, and after the two teams traded points, the Crimson took the lead for good, 13-12. Schossberger and Captain Maia Forman blocked consecutive shots to secure the third set for the Crimson.

The spikers quickly racked up the first six points of the fourth set, but Fareau called a time-out to give his squad a chance to regroup.

The time-out at first seemed futile as the Crimson built its lead to 10-5, but a string of four consecutive Jumbo points narrowed the gap to one. Tufts then out-scored Harvard, 6-2, the rest of the way to triumph, 15-12.