Men's Volleyball Improves Seeding Possibilities with Sweep

The Harvard men’s volleyball team (16-8, 9-4 EIVA) improved its postseason outlook this weekend, beating conference rivals New Jersey Institute of Technology (7-9, 4-8) and Rutgers-Newark (4-19, 0-12) at home on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

The Crimson clinched a postseason appearance in the EIVA tournament last week with a win over Princeton, making these conference games important in terms of seeding. The top four teams in the EIVA make the tournament and Harvard is ranked fourth and heading towards a difficult matchup with defending EIVA champion Penn State in the first round.

However if Harvard can win next week against Sacred Heart, and third-seeded Princeton loses to second-seeded George Mason, then the Crimson will move into third place and challenge George Mason in the first round.

“We are playing for seeding at this point,” Harvard coach Brian Baise said. “But just as important as that is trying to secure some momentum going into the first round.”

HARVARD 3, RUTGERS-NEWARK 0

Coming off a difficult match against NJIT, the Crimson came out determined to prove itself against a much maligned Rutgers-Newark team.

Harvard was led by dominant hitting performances from juniors Kyle Rehkemper, Will Chambers, and Nick Madden, who each finished with eight kills.

The team jumped out to an early lead in each of the three games and never allowed the Scarlet Raiders to close the gap.

In the first set, the Crimson jumped out to a 10-4 lead and eventually won, 25-14. Throughout the first game, the Crimson never trailed and its hitters posted a kill percentage of .542 while holding Rutgers-Newark to .273.

Harvard did not let up in the second set, securing a 7-3 lead after scoring five straight points and then coasting to a 25-18 victory.

While the Crimson hit a little worse in the game—.391, still well above its season average of .261—it dominated defensively, holding the Scarlet Raiders to a percentage of -.033 with five blocks.

In the third set, it appeared initially like Harvard was going to be challenged far more than previously by Rutgers-Newark as two straight Scarlet Raider points cut the Crimson’s lead to 9-8.

But from there, it was all Harvard. The Crimson went on a 10-2 run to gain a decisive lead and eventually win, 25-12.

Overall, Harvard notched a kill percentage of .490 while limiting Rutgers-Newark to .120, propelling the Crimson to an easy victory.

HARVARD 3, NEW JERSEY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 2

Friday night was a far tougher match for Harvard, as it was forced to play conference foe New Jersey Institute of Technology in a tie-breaking fifth game. But the squad suddenly turned it on at the end of the contest, seizing a victory, 3-2, with comebacks in both the overall match and individual games.

“It wasn’t how we wanted it to happen,” Baise said. “We were playing sloppy but we gained some momentum and came back.”

After dropping the first two sets, the Crimson suddenly picked up its game to take the next two stanzas and go into the fifth tied with the Highlanders.

Then, in the last set, Harvard went down early, 7-4, but rallied again, tying the score with three straight points. The teams then traded points until NJIT gained some distance at 14-12.

But the Crimson fought back again. The team scored on two straight match-points to tie the game, and eventually went ahead to win, 17-15.

After the first game ended in defeat, Baise only played several of his starters sparingly for the rest of the match. The team’s struggles continued into the second, which they lost by a wide margin.

But in the third set, Harvard abruptly found its game. After the Crimson secured an early lead, both teams traded points until Harvard went on a strong run to claim a 17-11 lead.

The Highlanders rallied back to 22-20, but it was not enough, and the Crimson eventually came out with its first win of the match, 25-22, to bring the overall count to 2-1.

“We had some different guys come in and do big things for us,” Baise said. “[Freshman outside hitter] Alec Schlossman and [junior outside hitter] Michael Owen really gave us a boost tonight.”

The fourth game went back and forth, with neither team able to maintain a sizeable lead until Harvard managed to earn a 25-23 victory and push the match into the fifth set, where it eventually won, taking both the game and the match.

“[NJIT] is really good and hustles on every play,” Owen said. “They really made us earn it, but we were able to focus up and concentrate on the little things to get it done.”