Spikers Sweep Engineers 3-0

Testing out a new starting line-up, Harvard's men's volleyball team beat MIT last night in three straight games at the MAC, 16-14,15-9 and 15-10.

In all three games, the Crimson started slowly and then rallied for the victory.

The first game began strongly for Harvard, with a solid serve by sophomore Petey Buletza and a forceful spike by senior Chris Wood.

MIT quickly came back, however Gaining control of the ball after a Crimson hit landed out, the Engineers proceeded to estalish a 4-1 lead.

After the serve see-sawed back and forth until the score was 5-7, senior Jon Carpenter nailed two spikes in a row and then made a stunning save to help Harvard establish a one-point lead, 8-7.

MIT retaliated ferociously, however scoring five straight points to take a 12-8 behind the blocking efforts of Curt Medeiros.

Led by senior Chris Wood, Harvard rallied to tie the score at 12-12, a surge which prompted an informal cheer from the hone crowd. The teams battled back and forth to a 14-14 even score when Harvard scored two fast points to put the game away 16-14.

In the second game, MIT got off to a fast start initially, before the Crimson notched the score at 3-3.

A few impressive smashes by Crimson junior Ned Staebler helped give Harvard a 6-5 lead, and from that point on, the Crimson never looked back. Even a reaching backcourt save by MIT's Medeiros couldn't stop Crimson sophomore Abbas Hyderi's serves, Buletza's blocks, and Wood's spikes from crushing the competition in a 15-9 win.

Like the second game, the third game started slowly for the Crimson, as MIT scored three successive points.

Two possessions later, however, Harvard began to run away with it. It ran up seven points in a row, led by senior Micah Acoba's serving and three straight blocks by Wood.

After MIT scored a few points thanks to some hard hits by Cenk Sumen, Harvard regained the ball to lunch another streak that brought the score to 12-5.

MIT rapidly countered with a run of its own, bringing the margin to two, 12-10, but the Crimson scored three points in a row to close the game at 15-10 and the match at 3-0.

Even though the Crimson won all three games, Coach Ihsan Gurdal was not completely satisfied with the team's performance.

"We've tried a new line-up and we need a lot of work on it," Gurdal said. "We have some stronger teams coming up to play."

Players agreed with the coach's assessment.

"It's our first home game and it's always nice to win, but we played pretty badly," captain Mike Meyer.

MIT coach Cindy Gregory's expectations for the game were not fulfilled.

"I really felt like it could have been a rally good match, but we just didn't play well tonight," she said.

Harvard's hosts Long Island at 2:00 on Sunday.