Women Spikers Sweep Jumbos in Three Sets

At the start of the season, the Harvard women's volleyball team was having its fair share of problems. Now, the Crimson is on roll and looking better with every game.

Last night in Medford, Harvard crushed Tufts in straight sets, 15-8, 15-8, 15-4, in a game that could best be described as a mercy killing.

Harvard (5-5) was kind and put the Jumbos out of their misery in less than an hour. The win makes it two in row for the Crimson, who defeated Lowell also in straight sets last Tuesday.

Most every member of the Harvard team got into the action last night. The number of kills and assists were more evenly distributed among the players in this game than they have been in the past.

Co-Captain Manda Schossberger led the Crimson with 14 kills out of 22 attempts. However, the big statistics last night belonged to the setters, Carolyn Burger, who provided 21 assists and Dani Cunningham, who had 12. Head Coach Wayne Lem had criticized the setting earlier in the season when the Crimson was losing some games that it clearly should have won.

Lem had nothing to complain about last night as Harvard dominated the serving game and didn't commit any attack errors. That, along with the excellent defensive play of Yvonnne Karanas and Mari Rodriguez, was all Harvard needed to coast to an easy victory.

"We are really starting to play well together as a team," Schossberger said. "Everyone on the team was very pleased with the way things went."

Very Ivy

The Crimson is off until next Friday when it faces a very tough, very big and very undefeated Cornell team in its first Ivy League game. Next Saturday, Harvard travels to the Big Apple to play Columbia.

"I think we can win the Ivy League," forward Peri Wallace said. "But we have to continue to play like we did today. Everyone has to contribute something. It can't be just a few people."