Men's Volleyball Bounces Back to Beat St. Francis in Straight Sets

For the second consecutive weekend, the Harvard men’s volleyball exchanged a Friday night straight-set loss for a Saturday afternoon straight-set win, as the Crimson downed St. Francis, 3-0, Saturday at the Malkin Athetic Center.

Behind strong team service and impressive performances from the middle hitters, Harvard (7-2, 2-2 EIVA) took control early and never looked back, dispatching the Red Flash (6-7, 3-1) in less than an hour.

The result gave Harvard a split of the weekend’s slate of conference games and allowed the squad to keep its spot in the top half of the EIVA standings.

“All the different aspects of our game seemed to be working really well,” sophomore libero Chris Gibbons said. “We had struggled with that in the past and [on Friday] in the Penn State match, but...St. Francis didn’t rise up to match us, and the game was basically ours from the get-go.”

With St. Francis ahead, 2-1, early in the first set, freshman middle hitter Caleb Zimmick notched two successive kills, giving the Crimson a lead it did not give up for the remainder of the match.

Zimmick posted another strong day in his freshman campaign, registering nine kills and nine blocks and dominating the middle of the court.

“Caleb had a really good day in the middle over [the Red Flash middle hitter],” said sophomore outside hitter Nick Madden. “He was able to read him really well.”

And while St. Francis traded points early, a 13-3 Harvard run took the visitors out of contention, as two Red Flash timeouts could not stop the slide. With the set out of sight, Harvard eased its way to taking the first set, eventually doubling up the St. Francis, 25-12.

The Crimson’s defensive execution played a key role in the dominant run.

“Our serve-receive passing was very good,” Madden said. “We were getting a lot of good defensive balls up. We weren’t putting balls 10 feet off the net; we were putting balls pretty close, so we had many options running.”

“It also helped that our middle hitters were hitting well, so that opened it up for the outside,” Madden added.

And Madden and captain outside hitter Matt Jones took advantage, as they combined for four kills during the 13-3 run and seventeen kills on the day.

Harvard again looked strong in the second set, as the team took a 14-9 lead after trading early points with the St. Francis.

A well-timed Red Flash timeout helped temporarily shift the momentum, as St. Francis tied the game at 16 apiece. But the Crimson’s effective hitting and serving gave Harvard control, winning nine of the next 14 points to take the set, 25-21.

To open the third frame, three consecutive Red Flash attack errors and a service ace from Madden gave the Crimson a 4-0 lead. Behind more strong service and defense, the Crimson fought to a 25-16 victory to take the 3-0 sweep.

Part of Harvard’s success on Saturday came from the team’s scouting and film session, which immediately paid off in the game.

“We scouted them pretty intensely, so we knew the tendency of the hitters,” Madden said. “The middles were really on top of their stuff; they were able to get out and close the blocks.”

Gibbons agreed, saying the preparation made the defensive game plan easier to execute.

“We knew where different hitters of theirs like to hit, and our defenders were able to pick up a lot of their swings,” Gibbons said. “We were able to slow their offense down and allow our offense to pick up, so we were able to execute what [Harvard] coach [Brian] Baise wanted us to do.”

In its four conference games so far this season, the Crimson has only played 12 sets, either winning or losing all four times in straight sets.

Madden believes it is indicative of the quality in the league and knows how important it is to stay in the top half of the EIVA.

“There is definitely a discrepancy in the league between the top couple of teams and the bottom couple,” Madden said. “We’ll be playing many of these teams again.... Hopefully, we can get some wins and end up with only two or three league losses.”

—Staff writer Peter G. Cornick can be reached at pcornick@college.harvard.edu.