Women's Volleyball Cannot Complete Comeback Against Dartmouth

Down two sets to none, the Harvard women’s volleyball team (10-7, 5-3 Ivy) could see its potential five-game winning streak slipping away to Dartmouth (10-10, 3-5 Ivy), a team that it had handedly defeated in the first game of its Ivy League season.

“Coming into the game against Dartmouth, we knew that it was the first match of the second half of Ivy League play”, sophomore setter Hannah Schmidt said. “We knew that everyone would have stepped up their game, because we’ve all kind of played each other and knew each other’s style. We knew we were going to come in to higher competition than last time, and I think we got a little caught off guard in the first two games.”

But, the Crimson fought back in tough fashion, rallying to beat the Big Green 25-21 in the third set, and just barely eking out a win, 26-24, in the fourth, a set that featured nine ties and multiple lead changes. In fact, Dartmouth had a 24-23 lead before Harvard was able to pull even and eventually win the set.

“We just realized we were making a lot of errors… that we were able to put aside and realize that if we put [the ball] into the court, we could continue playing and let them make errors for a little while”, freshman outside hitter Grace Weghorst said. “We were able to keep the ball in play and make them make errors.”

Despite Harvard’s efforts in mounting a comeback, the Big Green was able to pull out the victory by taking the final set, 15-10, capitalizing on a 6-0 run.

“Going into the fifth, we were pretty confident”, Weghorst said.  “I don’t know if that got to us…it definitely did not go the way we wanted.”

“We went in a little too nonchalantly,” Schmidt added. “We got down ahead of time, and we worked our way back up…but once you’re down at such a high deficit, it’s hard to come back with such little time.”

Contrary to the final score, the Crimson was able to obtain more attacking opportunities and kills in each of the five frames. Correspondingly, however, Dartmouth was able to notch as many, if not more, blocks in each of those sets.

Freshmen setter Corinne Bain of Harvard narrowly missed out on her third straight triple-double, notching 10 kills, 30 assists, and nine digs. She is currently the only Crimson athlete to record a triple-double in program history.

Sophomore outside hitter Kathleen Wallace continued her strong performances as well, leading the team with 17 kills. Weghorst and junior middle blocker Caroline Walters each added 12 kills of their own.

Junior outside hitter Kristen Casey led the defensive effort with 25 digs.

Dartmouth had star performances from freshman opposite hitter Emily Astarita and sophomore outside hitter Paige Caridi, who had 17 and 16 kills, respectively, and 11 digs each. Aiding their efforts was freshman setter Stacey Benton, who pitched in with 41 assists. Rounding out the Big Green’s offensive effort was senior middle blocker Elisa Scudder, who recorded five service aces.

One of the largest difference makers in this game was the disparity in blocks. Dartmouth’s sophomore middle blocker Kaira Lujan and Scudder both had three solo blocks, leading Dartmouth to a total of eight solo blocks. Harvard, on the other hand, was only able to record one solo block throughout the entire match.

The Crimson also faltered from the service line, as it had 14 service errors to their opponent’s four.  To add to this Harvard had three or more total errors than its opponents in all three losing sets.

“Because everyone changes their game plan, the second half of the Ivy Leagues is a whole different ball game,” Schmidt said. “Our coach had talked a little bit about how we have to work really hard in practice and see why we’re working for what we’re working for. We have to control our side of the court and not let what the other side does throw us off guard, and we have to play for our team and not just play to play the game.”

“It was a tough loss, but we’ll definitely be able to come back next weekend,” Weghorst added.