Harvard Wins Third in Row

The wins keep on coming for the Harvard women’s volleyball team.

The Crimson picked up another non-conference victory last night at the Malkin Athletic Center, sweeping away Quinnipiac (0-18) in three straight games (30-13, 30-21, 30-13) to improve to 5-5 on the season.

Harvard’s victory was never in doubt, as the Crimson led most of the match en route to its third straight win.

“It’s really good to have games like this where you can work on basic fundamentals,” sophomore Laura Mays said. “They help to practice and prepare for the Ivies and the more important games.”

Harvard took advantage of the opportunity to allow the whole roster to get playing time.

Juniors Alexandra Michael and Lauren Las both saw court time, with the latter notching three kills, while Mays added eight kills in just nine swings for a hitting percentage of .889.

“Everyone knows they are a part of the team,” Mays said. “But you work hard every day in practice, so it’s fun for everyone to finally get a chance to get in the game.”

“It was nice for everybody to get a chance to play,” Crimson coach Jennifer Weiss added. “A lot of people did some great things.”

The Bobcats stumbled out of the gates, allowing Harvard to take an early lead with three errors in the first six volleys.

But the game stayed tight, as the Crimson led by just 14-10. Then, Harvard blew the match open.

Senior Katie Turley-Molony had a kill and two service aces as part of a 10-1 Crimson run to take a 24-11 lead. Quinnipiac would score twice more, but Harvard took the game on a hard kill by sophomore Kathryn McKinley.

The Bobcats, however, would not roll over, matching every Crimson point early in game two and even taking a 19-17 lead.

But Harvard used three kills by Trimble, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Week, to take a 22-21 lead.

From there, the Crimson scored eight straight points, including four kills from Mays, to take a 2-0 lead in the match.

Game three would be just a formality, as Harvard scored more than twice for every point Quinnipiac put on the board, eventually taking the match with another 30-13 win.

The key to the easy win was defeating the Bobcats quickly and efficiently, and not playing down to the level of the opponent.

“It’s important to execute when you’re not in conference,” Weiss explained, adding “whoever is out of conference is to help prepare for the Ivies, so it’s important to pull those out.”

Trimble led the Crimson with 12 kills and a .556 hitting percentage, improving upon her season percentage of .429, good for 12th in the nation entering last night’s match. Freshman libero Katherine Kocurek finished with 12 digs.

Harvard will continue its Ivy League schedule on Friday in Hanover, N.H. against Dartmouth, a team they beat 3-1 less than a week ago.

“We took care of them last time, so hopefully we’ll do it again,” Mays said.

“We’ve had a really good week of practices and everyone is really focused,” she added. “But, we know what it’s like to be on the flip side, to be a losing team, so we’re not taking anything for granted this year.”

Game time in Hanover is set for 7 p.m.

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