New York Trip Brings Third Ivy Win

This weekend’s road trip to New York brought mixed results for the Harvard women’s volleyball team, as the Crimson survived Columbia for a close 3-2 victory on Friday night but was handed a 3-1 defeat by a powerful Cornell squad the following afternoon in Ithaca.

The come-from-behind win against Columbia snapped a four-match losing streak for the Crimson (9-10, 3-5 Ivy). The team hoped to use the momentum from the tug-of-war against the Lions to take down then-third-place Cornell but was overwhelmed by the strength of the Big Red’s hitters.

Junior co-captain Laura Mahon linked the mixed results this weekend with the Crimson defense.

“[Against Columbia], we did a good job establishing the block and so the defense around it played well,” Mahon said. “If every player does her job, it helps us play better defense.”

Mahon acknowledged that the team’s defense came undone a bit on Saturday by the power of Cornell’s hitters.

“It is tougher to play defense against a team that hits the ball so hard,” she added. “We didn’t do a good job adjusting to that in the beginning and weren’t as aggressive as we could have been.”

The weekend set leaves Harvard near the bottom of the league standings with a 3-5 Ivy record.

The Crimson will travel to Princeton and Penn next weekend, looking to avenge earlier losses to the teams.

“They actually haven’t seen us play our true game,” junior co-captain Suzie Trimble said. To win, she continued, “we need to focus on playing in the moment and keeping our heads in the game.”

CORNELL 3, HARVARD 1

The Crimson did not fare quite as well upstate as it did in New York City, as Cornell dealt a 3-1 (30-28, 30-13, 24-30, 30-17) defeat in Ithaca.

Trimble, who began the weekend in second place in the league in hitting, had another good outing on attack, posting 10 kills and a .375 hitting percentage. However, the power of the Big Red offense proved to be too much for the Crimson’s defense.

“Cornell is a lot bigger than Columbia,” Trimble said. “Every player in the front row had something to bring to us.”

In the first game, Cornell (11-8, 5-2) opened with an 8-2 lead but Harvard crept back, pulling within one point of Cornell at 27-28. The Big Red, however, won the final two points en route to a 30-28 victory.

The second frame was ugly for the Crimson, as Cornell showed why it is known as one of the hardest hitting teams in the league. The Big Red fired an impressive .548 hitting percentage and held the Crimson to a negative rate to seal a 30-13 victory.

Momentum shifted in the third game, as the Crimson improved its hitting percentage and blocking against the Big Red front line to take the game 30-24.

However, the Crimson slipped in the fourth game and Cornell roared to a 30-17 victory to take the match.

“We fell apart in the fourth game because we couldn’t stay in our system,” Mahon said, also pointing out the numerous errors in the final frame.

HARVARD 3, COLUMBIA 2

The lights of the Big Apple inspired great play on Friday night, as the Crimson got enormous efforts from a number of individuals en route to a 3-2 (25-30, 30-15, 30-25, 28-30, 15-13) victory.

Trimble was again the offensive spark, hitting .636 with a match-high 24 kills to tally 26.5 points for the team. Sophomore Kathryn McKinley and senior Katie Turley-Molony also played well on offense for the Crimson, posting 13 kills each.

Defense was the story of the night though, as five Crimson players recorded double-digit digs. Mahon had 20, Turley-Molony posted 18, McKinley had 17, and Lily Durwood and Alexandra Michael added 10 a piece. These efforts held Columbia (5-12, 0-8) to a .146 hitting percentage on attack.

Trimble was quick to credit the individual success of the players with the strong team play on defense.

“The reason that all of us did well,” she said, “ was that our defense was on. We were in our system and playing our game. The center had so many options that the block on the other side didn’t know where to go.”

The strong defensive effort by Columbia, however, made the match a real back-and-forth battle, as the Crimson was forced to hit second and third shots.

The Lions bested the Crimson in the first game, 30-25.

The Crimson surged back in the second, however, hitting a strong .410 to take the game, 30-15.

The third and fourth games were very competitive, as Harvard hit .205 to Columbia’s .136 to take the third (30-25), and Columbia hit .234 to Harvard’s .192 to capture the fourth (30-28).

But the fifth game was by far the closest of the match, as Harvard edged out Columbia by just two points to earn the victory.

“Defense will keep us winning,” Mahon said. ‘When we have that, we’ll keep rolling.”