West Coast Schools Sweep Harvard at San Jose St. Invite

After three straight losses at the San Jose State Hyatt Invitational, the Harvard women’s volleyball team left the sunny skies of California for Cambridge a little disheartened, but certainly a lot smarter.

“It was a great learning experience for our team,” senior Sarah Cebron said. “We definitely improved as the weekend went on.”

On Friday night, the Crimson (2-4) was swept by eventual tournament champion Cal State Northridge before twice falling in three straight on Saturday to tournament host San Jose State and Utah Valley State.

Junior co-captain Suzie Trimble was named to the All-Tournament team, finishing the weekend with 22 kills.

Harvard will continue its preseason tomorrow at New Hampshire in preparation for Ivy League play, which begins at the Malkin Athletic Center on Friday versus Dartmouth.

“We know exactly what we need to work on,” Cebron noted, adding that “everyone is fired up for the Ivies.”

UTAH VALLEY STATE 3, HARVARD 0

In the third-place match, Harvard hit just .096 and fell in three straight to the Wolverines 30-21, 30-25, 30-21.

Game Two was deadlocked at 23 when Utah Valley State rattled off four straight points, capped off by a kill from Brooke Adams, who led the Wolverines with 16 kills.

The 27-23 deficit was more than the Crimson could overcome, and Utah Valley State took a quick 2-0 lead in the match.

Trailing 25-21 in Game Three, the Crimson allowed five consecutive points, again finished off with a kill by Adams, as the Wolverines took the match and third place in the tournament.

Senior Katie Turley-Molony, who hails from San Jose, led the Crimson with seven kills, while Cebron and freshman Lily Durwood each had 12 assists.

SAN JOSE STATE 3, HARVARD 0

The tournament host Spartans proved too much for Harvard in the Saturday morning match, sweeping the Crimson 30-16, 30-18, 30-19.

After falling in the first game, the Crimson bolted out to a 10-7 lead in Game Two. However, San Jose State roared back with a 15-3 run to take a 22-13 lead of its own.

From there, the Crimson never got closer than eight, as San Jose also convincingly took game three.

Trimble led Harvard by hitting .556 en route to 10 kills. Freshman libero Katherine Kocurek added a team-high 14 digs.

Despite the loss, the team felt as if their performance was much improved over Friday’s effort.

“On Saturday, our level of play was much higher,” Cebron said.

San Jose State finished with 52 kills in the match, led by Keri Anglin. The Spartans, who improved to 9-3 with the win, lost to Cal State Northridge in Saturday evening’s championship match.

CAL-ST NORTHRIDGE 3, HARVARD 0

Despite three tight games with the Matadors, Harvard came up on the losing end of each (30-23, 30-20, 30-22), opening the tournament with a disappointing loss.

“[Friday night] was the most frustrating of all, because we made a lot of errors,” Cebron said.

The Crimson had just 28 kills and hit just .107, compared to Northridge’s 53 kills while hitting .371.

While Harvard and the Matadors remained close in the game one, Northridge jumped out to quick leads in Games Two and Three, stifling the Crimson’s hopes of a comeback.

“They were really a team we could have hung with much more than we did,” Cebron added. “It was our mistakes which led to the loss.”

Turley-Molony led the Crimson with eight kills, while Mahon and Kocurek added 12 digs apiece.

Matador Darla Donaldson, later named the tournament MVP, led Northridge by hitting .458 and notching 13 kills.

—Staff writer Kevin C. Reyes can be reached at kreyes@fas.harvard.edu.