W. Volleyball Drops Two Ivy Road Matches

The Harvard women’s volleyball team struggled in a pair of road Ivy League matches this weekend,losing to Columbia, 3-1, on Friday and falling to Cornell, 3-0, on Saturday. The weekend set concluded a six-game road trip.

The Crimson (9-7, 2-4 Ivy) has now lost three consecutive league games.

“It was a really long trip,” said junior setter and co-captain Mindy Jellin. “Cornell-Columbia is always tough because it is so far away.”

The Crimson’s usually potent offensive attack was stifled in both matches. Entering the week, Harvard had a team .218 kill percentage, good for third in the league, but was held to just .199 and .110 against Columbia and Cornell, respectively.

The Crimson will next host Penn at 7 p.m. on Friday in its first home match since a 3-0 loss to Boston College on October 3. Princeton will visit on Saturday at 4 p.m.

CORNELL 3, HARVARD 0

The Big Red (13-5, 5-1) overpowered the Crimson in three straight games in front of 156 fans at Newman Arena on Saturday. The win moved Cornell ahead of Brown and into first place in the Ivy League standings.

“I think they had a lot of energy as a team,” Jellin said. “Their mental game was more there than ours. If that’s the way they have been playing all season, they deserve to be where they are.”

Three Cornell players posted double-digit kill totals to lead the Big Red to its fifth consecutive victory and combine with Columbia to hand Harvard its first weekend sweep of the season.

Junior outside hitter Angela Barbera keyed the Cornell attack, posting 18 kills on her way to a .342 kill average tohelp wear down the Crimson.

Led by Jellin, who posted a match-high 15 digs, the Harvard defense held Cornell to a sub-par .176 kill percentage in the first game. However, the offense could not get into a rhythm, and Cornell squeaked by Harvard, 30-27, to take game one.

In the second two games, the Big Red’s offense took over to complete the three-game sweep with victories of 30-22 and 30-24.

“We just need to focus on playing our game,” said outside hitter and co-captain Erin Denniston. “We kept fighting up until 21, but it’s the points after [21] that matter.”

For the first time all season, not a single Harvard player registered a double-digit kill total, as Cornell held its opponent’s kill average under .200 for the twelfth time in 14 games.

Junior outside hitter Nicole Meunier led Harvard with nine kills, while three-time Ivy League Rookie of the Week Kaego Ogbechie posted eight kills and three blocks. Jellin registered 31 assists.

COLUMBIA 3, HARVARD 1

The Crimson jumped out to an early 1-0 lead, before dropping three straight games to the Lions in front of 143 fans at Levien Gym Friday night.

Columbia (9-5, 3-2) rebounded from the 30-27 loss in the first game to easily take games two and three, 30-21 and 30-19, before clinching the victory with a 30-27 win in game four. The Lions claimed sole possession of third place in the Ivy standings with the victory.

“I don’t really know what happened,” Jellin said. “I just don’t know. All the little things weren’t going well for us, all the points that could have gone either way.”

Three Harvard players – Meunier, Denniston and Ogbechie – posted double-doubles.

Ogbechie, coming off a triple-double in last week’s 3-2 victory over Yale, led the team with 15 kills and also registered 14 digs. Fellow freshman Pernilla Schweitzer led the team with 19 digs. Jellin added 11 digs and 42 assists.

The Crimson, though, could not keep up with the Lions’ offense.

Junior middle hitter Kathy Lavold and sophomore outside hitter Madia Willis had 23 kills apiece, while junior outside hitter Katie Beauregard posted her third consecutive double-double.

The Lions recovered from a .158 game one kill average to shoot a hefty .362 as a team over the final three games.