Conference Losing Streak Unable to Snap Seniors’ Spirit

There’s a song from an old Broadway musical that begins “It’s not where you start, it’s where you finish.”

Despite getting off to a solid start with wins over Delaware State and Wofford at the season-opening Harvard Invitational, the Crimson women’s volleyball team suffered a crushing six-match conference losing streak, downing any Ivy title aspirations and holding the squad to an 8-18 record.

“Although the record doesn’t show it, I feel like it was a very successful season in a lot of ways,” head coach Jen Weiss said. “A lot of the Ivy matches we lost were only by a few points. If you were to ask any of the seniors, they’d say they were satisfied with the season.”

Senior Suzie Trimble led the team in blocks with 91 (13 solo), blocks per game (1.07), and hitting percentage (.286).

She finished her career as Harvard’s all-time leader in block assists (298) and second in the record books in total blocks (370).

Trimble was also named Ivy League Player of the Week for the week of Nov. 12 after her season-high 24 kills and match-leading .488 hitting percentage in the Crimson’s heartbreaking 3-2 loss to Cornell in the final weekend.

Outside hitter Laura Mahon capped off her senior campaign in fine fashion, playing in all 93 games of all 26 matches this season.

With her 1100 career kills and 1292 career digs, Mahon joins Melissa Forcum ’99 as only the second Crimson player with at least 1000 kills and 1000 digs in her career.

She led the team with 333 kills this past season and tied with junior Kathryn McKinley for second in digs with 298. She also moved to the top of the all-time leaderboard in service aces, posting 23 this season to bring her four-year total to 117.

Fellow senior Mimi Hanley started all but one match, finishing fourth on the team with 234 kills.

Her 66 blocks put her second behind Trimble, and her 40 assists were third on the team.

“That was the first-ever title we had when they were freshmen,” Weiss said. “Whether we were winning or losing, they went beyond the call of duty on and off the court.”

Although Harvard is losing a solid senior class of competitors, the squad has underclassmen that have the ability to step up and fill the shoes.

Sophomores Katherine Kocurek and Lily Durwood—who were recently named next season’s co-captains—have already cemented themselves as contributors to the team.

In just her second season, libero Kocurek already holds the Crimson record for digs in a season with 520 this fall. Her 5.09 career digs per game also leads the Harvard all-time list, and her 5.59 digs per game this season toppled her own record of 4.44 digs per game for best in a season.

With 895 assists this fall, Durwood moved to fifth on the career leaderboard with 1426.

Her 9.62 assists per game aided the Crimson offensive, effectively setting up the Harvard attackers for quick kills.

Classmate Chelsea Ono Horn led the offense in service aces with 31 and finished fourth on the team in digs with 214.

And with what Weiss calls “a very solid freshman class” coming in next year, the future of Harvard women’s volleyball looks good, if young.

“There’s a lot of youth in the mix,” Weiss said. “But that group of [rising] juniors is really going to lead by example on the court.”

If that’s the case, then Harvard women’s volleyball will, like the song concludes, “finish on top.”

—Staff writer Dixon McPhillips can be reached at fmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.