Hurting Spikers Drop A Pair Over Weekend

It was just one of those days you would rather forget. But it might take the Harvard women's volleball team awhile--okay, at least a day--to erase the memory of a pair of defeats this weekend.

Saturday, the Crimson dropped a twinbill in Worcester, Mass., losing matches to Holy Cross and Fordham.

The Crimson (0-3) will get a chance for redemption tomorrow when it faces Williams College.

Harvard opened with a 15-2, 15-10, 0-15, 9-15, 15-8 loss to Fordham, followed by a 15-3, 15-6, 10-15, 15-5 defeat at the hands of the Crusaders.

"We gave Fordham the first two sets," Co-Captain Manda Schossberger said. "It was really frustrating. It wasn't until the third set that we started to gel."

In Harvard's three matches this season, the Crimson has fallen behind early. Part of the problem is beyond Harvard's control--several players, including setter Maia Forman, are injured.

"We had a lot of good individual performances," Schossberger said. "But we weren't playing as a team."

"We slept-walked through the first match," Harvard Coach Wayne Lem said. "We spotted them two games, then we decided that we would try and win the match. We won the next two sets, but we couldn't pull out the fifth one."

Even though the Crimson has dropped its first three games of the season, Lem is confident in his team and expects the squad to rebound against Williams.

"We have a good team," Lem said. "We have a lot of young players. A young team will make some mistakes. I just hope we got it out of our system this past week."

"We have to start playing well from the start of the match," Co-Captain Susie Nemes said. "We have to stop losing the first two sets. We have to take control of the match from the start. It was a disappointing weekend."

Once again Schossberger led the team in kills. In the two games, the junior recorded 35 kills, while adding four aces and 10 blocks.

Carolyn Burger added 25 kills, including a team-high 17 kills in the Holy Cross match. Burger also tallied four aces and a team-leading 64 assits. During the Fordham game, Danielle Cunningham had 80 percent kill rate--getting 12 out of 14. The freshman also threw in 50 assists on the day.

Peri Wallace and Jennifer O'Shea also had big days for the Crimson. Wallace had four blcoks and 16 kills, while O'Shea contributed with five assists on blocks during the Fordham game.

"Jennifer carried us in the Fordham match," Lem said.