Putting Success on Tap

It was like being traded from the New York Mets to the Baltimore Orioles.

Suzie Tapson, a Kirkland House senior, arrived at Harvard from a highly-regarded volleyball program to a program at Harvard that was less than mediocre.

In her senior year in high school, Tapson led her team to a third-place place finish in the California state volleyball tournament.

But when Tapson arrived at Harvard, she did not find the success that she had enjoyed in high school.

"It was really frustrating at first," Tapson says. "It was hard adjusting from winning all the time to losing a lot."

The squad finished with a 9-9 record during her freshman year. During her sophomore year, the Kirkland resident missed two-thirds of the year with an ankle injury. The team missed her. It finished with a 4-17 record.

At that point, Tapson was wondering if she wanted to continue playing for the Crimson. "It was really bad," Tapson said "Everyone was hurt and people were quitting right and left. The program was in disarray. I didn't know if I was going to come back."

Luckily for the Crimson, she did.

In her junior year, the team finshed with a 5-16 mark under first-year Coach Wayne Lem. "Even though we had a losing record, there was a different attitude on the team," the California native says. "I saw a lot of improvement. The team was much better. Every single person on the team improved over the year."

In her senior year, Tapson was finally able to enjoy success again. "This year was great," Tapson says. "In a lot of ways, this year made my career at Harvard complete. I was really proud and impressed with our performance."

This year, the Crimson finished in third place in the Ivy League Tournament--just two points shy of the finals. The squad lost the deciding set to eventual champion Princeton, 15-13.

"It was really important for me to do well my senior year," Tapson says. "We had the talent. I felt we could win it."

"I wished we would have won," Tapson adds, "but overall, I was very happy the way we finished. We gained respect from the administrators, press, fans and our opponents."

"She was influential in our success this season," Captain and setter Maia Forman says. "She was one of the most experienced and skillfull players on the team. It was fun playing with her these past three years. She was also easy to set to."

A regular-season victory over Brown in a five-set thriller and tournament triumphs over Cornell and Yale were Tapson's biggest victories.

The senior will spend next year in the "real" world, then will attend law school.