W. Volleyball Falls to UMass

On Tuesday night, the Harvard women's volleyball team arrived with its pistols blazing for an exciting intrastate showdown against UMass-Amherst.

However, at the end of a long, hard night, the Crimson team walked out of Curry Hicks Cage with its head hung low and its pistols tucked away.

Playing its sixth match in six days, an emotionally- and physically-exhausted Crimson contingent (5-7, 0-0 Ivy) suffered a difficult loss to the Minutewomen, falling in three straight games, 15-5, 15-7, 15-9.

"Our team is pretty disappointed by the loss," said junior middle hitter Katherine Hart. "UMass is definitely a very strong, tough team, but we really could have played with them and played them point-for-point. We just made too many mental and physical mistakes during the match."

Junior outside hitter Angela Lutich led the way for the Crimson by chalking up 13 kills and 11 digs on the night. Hart added nine digs, and senior outside hitter Linda Jellison tacked on seven kills.

Leading the victorious Minutewomen (6-6) was junior Rebecca Hasson, who recorded an impressive double-double with 14 kills and 10 digs. Senior Jill Meyers destroyed the Crimson defense with 17 kills, and fellow senior Kari Hogancamp added nine kills and 19 digs to bolster the UMass attack.

"In the end, I'm really happy with how we played as a team, but we just couldn't find our rhythm [Tuesday] night," said junior setter Julie Yick. "UMass is a tough competitor, and their team is pretty similar to UConn, who beat us [in three games] over the weekend."

Harvard's loss follows a disappointing weekend. Harvard accumulated a 1-4 record at the UConn Invitational, salvaging it with an inspired 3-2 victory over UNH while losing four heart-breaking 3-0 matches against some of the nation's most competitive programs.

On Tuesday night, the Crimson started out the match against UMass with dynamism and excitement, but that well of energy soon ran dry. Early in the first game, the score was tied 2-2, but inconsistent Crimson passing and miscommunication between Harvard players proved deadly.

Behind the barrage of three kills by Meyers, the Minutewomen ran off 10 quick points to grab an insurmountable 12-2 advantage and ultimately win the game, 15-5.

"Running off that many points is definitely a big momentum-builder for the other team," Hart said. "We just had a lot of passing mistakes and communication breakdowns, and we let them make too many long scoring runs."

"[UMass] was able to come out at us from the start, and the momentum immediately shifted to their side," Yick said.

In the second game, UMass again exploded to an early 12-2 lead, which the Crimson was unable to overcome. Again, the Minutewomen snuffed out the Crimson's hopes by running off another long run of unanswered points, scoring six consecutive points and eventually winning the second game, 15-7.

The Crimson attempted to rejuvenate itself in the third game, but it was unable to change the momentum of the match. In what appeared to be a replay of the two earlier games, UMass again jumped out to an early lead, holding an 11-4 advantage. However, the Crimson rallied together and ran off three consecutive points, slicing lead to 11-7.

"We just told ourselves that at that point in the match, we really had nothing to lose," Hart said. "It reminded me of how we played against UNH this weekend where we just told ourselves that we would go out there and play and learn something from this match."

However, the Crimson's sudden scoring spurt soon fizzled. Unlike the match against UNH over the weekend, in which Harvard battled back to win the fifth and final game of the match, UMass shut down the Harvard offense and went on to a 15-9 game win.

"Towards the end of the match, we definitely picked up our game against UMass defensively, but we just couldn't capitalize on our opportunities," Yick said.

The Crimson will have the rest of the week to regroup and recover from its exhausting schedule of the last week.

Its next match will be on Saturday afternoon, when Harvard will travel to Stony Brook to compete against both Wagner and Stony Brook.

"Even though we lost the match [against UMass], we still had some freshmen who played really well for us," Yick said.

The freshman class has significantly strengthened the Crimson roster this season. Against UMass on Tuesday night, freshman setter Mindy Jellin played well, tallying 28 assists for the match and adding nine digs. Classmate Liz Cebron also made a key contribution with seven digs.

"We actually had some individual players who had really great games, but as a team, we just couldn't pull it together," Yick said.

But by the weekend, the Crimson should have enough time to recharge its batteries in the hopes of recapturing its winning style.