W. Volleyball Falls Short in Tourney

So close, but so far away.

That's how the Harvard women's volleyball team felt yesterday after its loss to Central Connecticut Saturday to close out the Harvard Invitational Tournament.

After defeating Dartmouth relatively handily in the morning (10-15, 15-4, 15-10, 15-5), the Crimson's comeback attempt against the Blue Devils fell short, and Harvard lost 7-15, 4-15, 15-13, 15-8, 4-15.

"We feel pretty good [about the tournament]," co-captain Jennifer Garcia said. "Two and two is respectable, and we could have gone 3-1."

In the match against Dartmouth, the Crimson started off a bit sluggish, playing at 10 a.m.

"I guess we aren't an early morning team," Garcia said. "It was a struggle with ourselves.

"Dartmouth was digging our balls--they were scrappy. Those teams are tough to beat," she added.

A few hours after the victory, Harvard took on Central Connecticut. The match started off poorly for the Crimson. Bad serve receiving plagued Harvard, and the team found itself down two games to none very quickly and staring at defeat.

In the third game, however, the Crimson refused to yield. Harvard stayed with Central throughout the game, and held out to win, 15-13.

"Basically, we were down 2-0, and we knew we were better than we were demonstrating to be," freshman Heather Rypkema said. "So we started worrying less about whether or not we scored every point, and more about our style."

"All of a sudden, I looked up at the score, and we had won," Garcia said.

After winning that game, the momentum was on the Crimson's side. The Blue Devils played shakily, and the points kept coming for Harvard as it won the fourth game, 15-8.

"[Winning the third game] picked up our confidence," Rypkema said. "We just stopped and looked at ourselves from the outside."

Central Connecticut, however, somehow found the magic that won the Blue Devils the first two games. Since the fifth set was scored according to the rally system, in which teams get points on sideouts as well as on serves, the Blue Devils won very quickly.

"They just ran off a string of points," Garcia said.

Saturday marked the last home match for Garcia, the only senior on the team, and her teammates wished her a happy farewell.

"We played well for [her]," sophomore Jennifer Jose said.

The Crimson has a week to practice until the Ivy League Tournament next weekend, when it will face off against Princeton Friday.

"We're really confident," Rypkema said. "If we can play the way we think we can, I think we have a really good chance."

Harvard has reason to be excited. With a record of 8-14 overall, 2-5 Ivy, it has doubled the win total of last year, and with a young team, things are definitely looking up.

"Next year the team will be great," Garcia said. "We have a couple of great recruits. We've had a good time this year."