Men's Volleyball Runs Out of Gas in Tournament

It was a tiring day for the Harvard men's volleyball team.

Not just because the Crimson played four matches in one day. In the Roger Williams tournament on Saturday, Harvard believed it had a shot to win, but the Crimson failed to excel at key points and watched its frustrations mount.

And by the end, Harvard (3-6, 0-0 EIVA) was 1-3 and exhausted.

"It was a tiring format, back-to-back-to-back literally," co-captain Abbas Hyderi said. "It was pretty hectic, especially for the leapers."

The matches began at 9 a.m. and were of the regular best-of-five format, unlike other all-day tournaments that shorten the contests to best-of-three. With only a fifteen-minute break between matches, every ounce of energy had to be conserved.

Which meant that the goal was not only to win matches but to also do so quickly. A two-hour marathon match would make the next one that much more difficult.

In the first contest, Harvard stuck to the plan well, whipping Johnson & Wales 3-0 (15-6, 15-1, 16-14).

However, SUNY New Paltz jumped out ahead of Harvard in the following match, taking the first two games 14-16, 8-15. The Crimson then roared back, winning the next two sets (16-14, 15-12) but lost a close fifth game by a 15-13 count.

Against SUNY, Harvard played some of its best volleyball in the tournament--or the season, for the matter. But the cost of the loss was great, for the grueling match demoralized and wore out the Crimson.

"It was a tough match," freshman Jim Rothschild said. "We played really well--it was the highlight of the day. It was a good experience, even though we lost."

To boot, Harvard's opponents weren't getting any easier. The next match came against Ramapo, who had only played one match so far on the day. Ramapo won in four games against an increasingly distraught Harvard team, 15-12, 15-8, 1-15, 15-8.

As might be inferred, the third set stood out from the others. In that game, the Harvard starters came back in--they had been subbed out in the first two sets--and throttled Ramapo.

But it was too little, too late. Ramapo won the fourth set rather easily, and then Harvard had to face eventual tournament champion Roger Williams.

That match was pretty forgettable for Harvard, but it was perfectly descriptive of the day. The Crimson lost the first two games by rather close margins--15-10 and 15-12--but in the third, exhaustion set in and Roger Williams goose-egged Harvard, 15-0.

At the end, it was not pretty.

"By that point, the team was totally [tired] mentally and physically," Hyderi said. "By 7-0 we hadn't even rotated."

It was a bad ending to a disappointing tournament. Harvard came to Roger Williams looking to gel, for the team had already lost spikers David Olsen and Dave Cho to injury.

"It's frustrating because we have the potential but we can't realize it," Hyderi said.