Women's Volleyball Wilts on Brink of Victory

Victory was in their grasp, but it was not there to stay.

Leading New Hampshire two games to one at the Malkin Athletic Center last night, the Harvard women’s volleyball team had three match points but couldn’t hang on for the win, falling 3-2 (30-27, 25-30, 24-30, 32-30, 15-10) to extend its losing streak to six matches.

The Crimson (2-7) had two match points at 29-27 and another at 30-29, but it was not enough as the Wildcats rallied to win game four, 32-30, setting up the decisive fifth frame.

In the final game, the Wildcats (3-12) jumped out to a 6-2 lead. Though Harvard rallied to tie the frame at 10, UNH scored the last five points to cruise to the win.

“In a fifth game situation, it’s best to be the first to five points and the first to eight points,” co-captain Elizabeth Blotky said.

“It’s really important to be first to get a run, which we have done [in the past],” she added. “But unfortunately we were not able to do that tonight.”

After losing the first frame, 30-27, the Crimson came out strong in game two, leading throughout the frame.

Harvard led by as much as nine points and held off a mini-rally by the Wildcats to prevail, 30-25.

The Crimson carried the momentum from game two into the third frame, scoring the first four points of the game on co-captain Sarah Cebron’s serve.

Harvard never looked back, maintaining at least a three-point differential en route to a 30-24 win.

“Even in the first game, we showed, definitely, a change from last weekend,” Blotky said. “It lit a spark in us that we needed to change things up, and we did a good job in the second and third games.”

Crimson head coach Jennifer Weiss was pleased with the team’s performance.

“We played a great match,” she said. “We did a lot better tonight than we did over the weekend.”

“Our ball control was better, and we played some great defense and transitioned it into points,” she added.

Harvard was led by its middle hitters, sophomore Suzie Trimble (19 kills) and junior Katie Turley-Molony, who contributed 17 kills, 11 digs and a .368 hitting percentage.

Junior outside hitter Jennifer Fountain returned to the Crimson after missing the start of the season with an injured back and pitched in with a team-high .375 attack percentage.

“[Jennifer] looked solid,” Weiss said. “Every time she got the ball, she scored—that’s always nice.”

Harvard will look to break its losing streak this weekend in its two matchups.

The Crimson’s next match is this Friday at the MAC against Dartmouth, who swept Harvard in three games last Friday for the first time ever. The Crimson is pumped and looking for revenge.

“We definitely improved a lot this match,” Blotky said. “If anything, I think the loss will spur us on to practice harder this week and really come in rearing to go and beat [the Big Green] in three [games].”

After taking on its Ivy foe, Harvard will host Sacred Heart before going on the road for five straight matches.