Killer P’s Beat W. Volleyball to the Finish in 3-2 Battles

It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.

The Harvard women’s volleyball team learned that valuable lesson twice this weekend in true heartbreaking fashion. Against both Penn and Princeton the Crimson grabbed an early 2-1 lead, but allowed the Killer P’s to come back and win each match 3-2.

“It all just a matter of having that mental toughness to finish the game,” said co-captain and middle blocker Mariah Pospisil. “And we just didn’t quite have that this weekend.”

Harvard (4-12, 3-3 Ivy) now sits in fourth place in the Ivies—a full three games back of league-leading Cornell.

“We’re all frustrated about [the weekend losses],” Pospisil said. “But we just want to channel that and come in on Monday and start a whole new season, work hard in practice and win the rest of our games.”

Princeton 3, Harvard 2

Against the Tigers (11-5, 4-1) on Saturday, the Crimson was just four points away from victory and snapping a two-game skid against Ivy foes.

But Princeton dashed Harvard’s hopes, winning the fourth and fifth games to close out the match (30-27, 27-30, 30-21, 26-30, 9-15).

“In the last game, we’ve just got to finish,” said Harvard coach Jennifer Weiss. “We can’t let a team play at us, we have to play at them.”

In the fifth game, the Tigers coasted to a 15-9 victory on the heels of a 9-3 run that shattered any hope the Crimson had of finishing the weekend with a win.

The fourth game also offered Harvard a chance to win as it held a 22-19 lead before a five-point Princeton run snatched the momentum away. But the Crimson answered with four points to put Harvard up 26-24. It was here that the Tigers stunned the Crimson by taking the next six points—three on Harvard miscues—to force the decisive fifth game.

“We play well early in the game,” Pospisil said. “But when the score gets past twenty, we start getting tentative and we start making stupid mistakes.”

The Crimson dominated the third frame, storming out of the gate with an 8-1 advantage. After the Tigers closed the lead to one, Harvard responded with a nine-point run to open a 19-9 advantage. Princeton could get no closer than seven the rest of the way, as the Crimson took the game 30-21 and a 2-1 lead in the match.

The Crimson trailed 27-22 in the second game, but rallied to take the next three points. An inopportune net violation halted the comeback, and Princeton held on to take the game 30-27.

The first game went back and forth until the Crimson put together a four-point run on the strength of two aces by junior setter Kim Gould to take a 24-20 lead. The Tigers closed the lead to one at 27-26, but kills by junior outside hitter Nilly Schweitzer and Pospisil helped Harvard secure a 30-27 victory.

Schweitzer registered her ninth double-double of the season and fifth in six Ivy League games with 14 kills and 17 digs. Senior outside hitter Nathalie Miller recorded her second double-double of the weekend with 12 kills and 13 digs.

Penn 3, Harvard 2

Harvard dropped the fifth and most important match 15-7 bringing a disappointing end to what had been an impressive performance turned in by the Crimson against Penn (30-17, 23-30, 31-33, 30-27, 15-7) on Friday night.

With the game score knotted up at one in the third frame, Harvard pulled off a last second rally to take a 2-1 lead in the match.

The Quakers (12-4, 5-0 Ivy) seemed to have the third game in hand as it grabbed a 29-27 lead. The Crimson stormed back, taking the next three points and the lead. Leading 32-31, Harvard freshman middle hitter Katie Turley-Molony ended a long rally with an emphatic kill to give the Crimson the game 33-31.

“I know that we all wanted [to win game three] so badly and the fans were great,” Gould said. “It was just amazing.”

Harvard held a 21-18 lead in the fourth game and appeared to be well on its way to closing out the match. However, an 8-2 Penn run gave the Quakers a 26-23 lead. After a timeout, the Crimson knotted the game at 27. But that was as close as Harvard would get to ending the match, as Penn took the next three points and the game, 30-27.

“We just let them creep up and we were too content with where we were,” Gould said.

The dramatic fourth game was followed up by a one-sided fifth game which saw the Quakers outkill and outblock the Crimson, 10-5 and 4-0, respectively.

Harvard came out strong out of the gate grabbing an early 9-8 lead on Penn in the first game. A 15-4 Quaker run snatched the momentum away from the Crimson, as Penn established its presence and ran away with the game. The Crimson was unable to respond to the charge and dropped the game 30-17.

“For some reason, we always start off really slowly,” Schweitzer said. “But we definitely felt like we could do much better and we knew that we could step it up.”

The second game started out close as well and stayed that way until Harvard forged some breathing room at 21-18. The Crimson benefited from three costly Penn errors and registered two huge blocks as it opened up a 26-19 lead en route to a 30-23 victory.

Schweitzer had a team-high 16 kills and 13 digs for her eighth double-double of the season. Miller also registered a double-double with 10 kills and 18 digs.

—Staff writer Michael R. James can be reached at mrjames@fas.harvard.edu.