Volleyball

QUINCY--It was Burger day Saturday at Eastern Nazarene College.

Playing in only her second and third games for the Harvard women's volleyball team, freshman Carolyn Burger served the Crimson to two easy victories.

The spikers (now 6-3 overall) captured a 15-0, 15-0 triumph over Worcester State, and a 15-6, 15-7 victory over Eastern Nazarene College.

"We were much stronger than they were," Co-Captain Maia Forman said. "Our service game was the key to both victories. Both matches gave us an opportunity to practice our plays and hitting."

"Carolyn's service game was great," Forman added. "She served nice, steady serves. She was the key to both victories."

Burger led the team with 18 aces, followed by Jennifer O'Shea, who recorded eight. Harvard tallied 30 aces on the day.

"We worked a lot on our passing game at practice," Burger said. "I think that was the reason we served so well."

While the whole team contributed to the victory, it was Burger who really took the bite out of the opposition.

In the first set against Worcester State, Burger immediately set the tempo for the day, registering Harvard's first point with an ace. The freshman wasn't finished there, as she recorded eight more consecutive aces to give the Crimson a 9-0 advantage.

Losing 9-0, Worcester State was finally able to stop Burger's string of aces; however, not until the set stood at 11-0 did Worcester State hit the ball to the Harvard side.

Harvard managed to tally two more aces, with Callie Huber recording both, en route to a 15-0 triumph. Harvard recorded 11 aces in the first set.

Led by O'Shea's service game, and kills from freshman Beverly Armstrong, the Crimson put Worcester State out of its misery. The spikers recorded 10 aces in the second set, with eight coming from O'Shea and two from Burger.

The walk over Worcester was an example of Harvard's bench strength--all Harvard starters sat on the bench during the match, which took less than 15 minutes.

"The bench did really well," Forman said. "They were able to dominate the whole match."

Over the Net, Please

In Harvard's second match of the tri-match tourney, the Crimson fell behind, 6-1, to Eastern Nazarene, prompting Harvard Coach Wayne Lem to call a timeout.

The timeout obviously worked, as the spikers roared back to take a 7-6 lead, behind the service game of Burger--who recorded five aces in the Crimson's comeback.

Pascale Jean-Louis and Co-Captain Jodi Cassell combined for five kills, as Harvard scored the final eight points for the victory.

In the second set, the confident Crimson jumped out to a 5-0 advantage, helped by Burger's two aces and kills by Manda Schossberger and Jean-Louis.

But the Crusaders fought back to close the spikers advantage to 8-7. However, the Eastern Nazarene squad failed to muster another point against Harvard's tenacious defense.

Burger was the server during 20 of the Crimson's 30 points and finished the match with seven aces.