Women's Volleyball Loses Pair of Road Ivy Contests

The Harvard women’s volleyball team battled Yale at the Lee Amphitheater in New Haven, Conn., on Friday night with the hopes of putting an end to a nearly 10-year long losing streak against the Bulldogs. The Crimson, winless against its Eli rivals since 2004, had not even picked up a set since 2010.

Both streaks are still alive, as the Bulldogs (8-3, 2-0 Ivy) handedly defeated Harvard (6-6, 1-2 Ivy) in three sets.

The Crimson attempted to bounce back in its second game of the weekend at Brown on Saturday, but was unable to come up with the victory in a tight, 3-2, contest.

“[This weekend] is something that we can definitely use to move forward, because I feel like we have a lot to give,” sophomore outside hitter Jennifer Shults said. “I think we have the potential to be very successful during the season, and this weekend was just a bad weekend, but I want to try to look at it positively. There’s a lot that we can take away that will help us get better, and move forward.“

BROWN 3, HARVARD 2

The hotly contested battle between Harvard and Brown (6-8, 2-1 Ivy) featured numerous star performances coming from both teams. On the Crimson side, freshman setter Corinne Bain notched a triple-double, leading the team with 33 assists, 11 digs, and a career-high 15 kills. She also chipped in four aces.  Sophomore middle blocker Caroline Holte bounced back from a tough game at Yale to have 13 kills and seven blocks.

Despite the efforts by the Crimson, the Bears ended up eking out the win in five sets, giving the Crimson its second loss of the weekend.

Brown featured senior outside hitter/middle blocker Thea Derrough, who had an impressive 20 kills, as well as junior outside hitter Maddie Lord, who added 15 kills of her own.

The tipping point of the game came near the end of the fourth set, as the teams were tied 19-19. Harvard had already picked up two of the first three sets, but the Bears fought to hold off the Crimson to ensure a fifth and final set. A kill by Derrough and an error by Harvard allowed the Bears to take hold of the advantage. Two more errors on the Crimson side gave the frame to Brown.

In the final set, Brown took control early and finished the game, fittingly, with a kill by Derrough.

“We struggled to run our system and implement the things we’ve been working on in practice and in the preseason during the match,” said Shults. “I think that it was a close game, and one that we could’ve pulled through and won.”

Although the first three matches were more tightly contested, the team that took the lead first ended up winning all five sets. In general, the game was won on a couple of key moments that swung the momentum, and game, in Brown’s favor.

YALE 3, HARVARD 0

It was all Bulldogs during the match, as the Crimson managed to hold only one lead throughout the entire game, a 1-0 advantage in the second set.

The home team was led by sophomore middle blocker Jesse Ebner and junior outside hitter Mollie Rogers, who each had 11 kills. Additionally, Ebner and freshman libero Tori Shepherd contributed three aces apiece. The offensive game was aided by the play of senior setter Kendell Polan, who registered 27 assists.

“We just made some uncharacteristic mistakes, and Yale played very aggressively,” Shults said.

Yale also had multiple strong defensive performances, as Polan led the team with 12 digs, while junior libero Maddie Rudnick added 11 digs. Shepherd and Rogers also came very close to the double-digit mark for digs, but fell short by one and two digs respectively.

Harvard, on the other hand, had no players that recorded double-digit values for any of the aforementioned statistics. Three players had a team-high four kills, while Bain aided with a team-leading eight assists. Holte, one of the Crimson’s most dynamic scorers, had a goose egg in the kills column.

“I thought our team went into the match very fired up, very mentally prepared,” sophomore outside hitter Kathleen Wallace said. “We worked really hard the previous week in preparation for the games. I think one thing we can take away from it is that we can play our system no matter where we are, whether we’re home or away. We started strong, but we definitely have various things we can improve on.”