Crimson Narrowly Edges Wildcats

Tuesday night in the Lundholm Gymnasium, the Harvard women’s volleyball team pulled out a clutch performance to beat the University of New Hampshire, 3-2.

“We wanted to be tough heading into this game,” sophomore Mikaelle Cormie said. “New Hampshire ran offense inside-out so we worked hard to set a strong solid block and our block allowed us to play really good defense.

"Our strong block is really disturbing to their hitters and took them out of their game and helped push the energy in our favor.”

The first frame was a hard fought battle between the Crimson (6-7, 1-0 Ivy) and the Wildcats (3-13). Harvard edged out New Hampshire, 26-24, in a match filled with momentum shifts. Late in the set, the Crimson fell behind, 21-19, but was able to fight back and regain the lead, 23-21. The two teams then exchanged points until Harvard came up with the win.

“We have been working a lot on keeping the momentum up in practice,” Cormie said. “Once we get a few points, and we really get going, we get into our rhythm.

“We play like a machine, absolutely flawless.”

The Wildcats started the second frame strong, coming ahead, 24-14, over the Crimson. But Harvard again edged out New Hampshire in the second match, 27-25, after an important rally which was propelled by freshman Anne Ingersoll. Ingersoll had five kills in the second set while her teammate Cormie led the Crimson with six kills over the course of the match.

Junior co-captain Lily Durwood led the game with 51 assists.

“The comeback in the second game was a testament to our team’s strength not only physically but mentally,” Durwood said. “The win fed into our concentration and excitement and really helped us mentally going into the third game.”

After edging out the Wildcats in the first two sets, the Crimson lost the third match, 25-21. Harvard came out firing, winning the first three points, but it could not hold onto the lead when a combination of attack errors and New Hampshire kills led to a change in the match’s momentum.

The Crimson went ahead in the fourth set scoring five out of the first six points, including three consecutive kills from Cormie. The women’s squad held onto the lead late into the match and was looking to close out the game, but the Wildcats were not ready to hit the showers just yet.

New Hampshire pulled ahead with a kill from junior Kristin Bates, and Harvard was unable to regain the lead. Forcing a climactic fifth match, the Wildcats claimed the fourth, 25-22.

Harvard lost the first two points of the fifth set but quickly evened up the tally, scoring two points off of junior Chelsea Ono Horn’s kill and subsequent ace.

After several attack errors on both side of the court prevented either team from building much momentum, the Crimson used a Comrie kill to pull ahead of New Hampshire.

With Harvard leading 14-12, Cormie closed out the game with her sixteenth kill of the night to add another notch to the Crimson’s record.

“This game taught our team perseverance,” Cormie said. “Every team in the Ivies should be tough competition so it was good to end non-conference play with a tough game.”

“We feel totally great after the win tonight,” Durwood said. “We grinded it out. Our mental toughness is really good for us going into Dartmouth.”

The last time Harvard faced the Big Green was at the Dartmouth Invitational in Hanover, N.H. this past weekend. The Crimson cruised to three victories to win the tournament.

Coming just three days after Harvard topped St. Francis in the finals of the Invitational, last night’s win is the Crimson’s fourth in a row.

“This game got fight back in us after a long weekend and showed us what we are capable of,” Durwood said.

Harvard sets its sights on the Ivy League schedule, playing its Ancient Eight home-opener on Friday night against Dartmouth.