Harvard Splits Contests Against Killer P’s

After cruising past Columbia and Cornell in its two previous games, the Harvard women’s volleyball team looked to continue its win streak at the Malkin Athletic Center this past weekend. The Crimson (7-10, 3-3 Ivy) split its home games versus two more Ivy League opponents, defeating Princeton (3-12, 1-3), 3-2, on Friday night before falling to Penn (14-4, 5-0) on Saturday, 3-1.

Amongst the mixed success came a numerical feat from senior Lily Durwood.

Against Princeton, the senior passed the 3,000 career assist mark, making her only the third Harvard women’s player to ever accomplish that feat, and she added 30 more versus Penn.

The women’s squad remains in the middle of the pack heading into next weekend at Yale and Brown, where it will seek to emulate previous success on the road.

PENN 3, HARVARD 1

Both the Crimson and the Quakers were coming off of victories when they faced each other on Saturday, and Penn had defeated Harvard in each of their seven previous matchups. That streak would improve to eight as the Crimson lost with scores of 15-25, 24-26, 25-22, 16-25.

Harvard came out with high energy in the first set, scoring its first two points off of consecutive kills by sophomore Sandra Lynne Fryhofer, who had a team-high .375 hitting average for the night. The play that shifted the momentum in Penn’s favor came with the Crimson up 9-5; after co-captain Chelsea Ono Horn served the ball, a series of ferocious spikes and blocks ensued and ultimately resulted in a kill by the Quakers’ Elizabeth Semmens—one of her career-high 26—that made the score 9-6. From there, Penn battled back and won the first set, 25-15.

The score in the second set stayed close throughout; Harvard forced overtime but fell 26-24. In the third set, junior Mikaelle Comrie led the Crimson with three of her team-high 15 kills to a 25-22 victory.

Harvard could not sustain its momentum in the fourth set, and Penn’s Semmens could not be stopped. The Quakers won the set, 25-16.

The Crimson put up a fight defensively, out-blocking Penn 10-9, but the Quakers were too much to handle offensively. Penn had a 61-46 advantage over Harvard in kills and a 58-48 advantage in digs.

HARVARD 3, PRINCETON 2

In its first match of the weekend, Harvard was set to face the Tigers, who beat the Crimson in the two teams’ last 12 contests. Harvard’s victory over Princeton was its first since October 26, 2002.

“[The Tigers] have quite a record over us,” Harvard coach Jennifer Weiss said. “So that was a great win. I could feel that some of our offensive systems would take them by surprise. So it was really a great team effort.”

The Crimson came out of the gate with intensity, winning the first set, 25-23. Errors and miscommunication set in and began to disrupt play, and the Crimson dropped the second and third sets with scores of 25-19 and 25-16.

“I think in the second [set], Princeton turned it on a little,” Coach Weiss said. “The idea is to earn points and not make so many unforced errors.”

“We lost momentum in the second and third games,” sophomore Anne Carroll Ingersoll said. “We weren’t talking to each other as much. We weren’t as much of a unit as we were, especially in the first game, when we were just on and together. I think we were able to learn from the games we lost.”

Harvard stole back the momentum during the fourth set, winning 25-16, and the Crimson was able to seal the deal in overtime in the fifth set, 16-14.

Three Harvard players notched double-digit kills in the match. Freshman Taylor Docter led the team with 14 kills and Ingersoll added 12 kills along with eight blocks. Ono Horn and Comrie also added nine kills apiece, while sophomore Christine Wu led all players with 34 digs.

In addition to Durwood’s 3000th assist, the Crimson notched several records as a team on Friday: it recorded a season-high 13 blocks and a season-best 98 digs.