Women's Volleyball Splits Pair of Games at New England Challenge

In the second annual New England Challenge this weekend, the Harvard women’s volleyball team (5-3) split a pair of games against local foes Northeastern (7-6) and Boston College (8-4).

After dropping a match to Northeastern on Saturday night in four sets, the team bounced back on Sunday afternoon and earned a 3-1 win over BC. Despite the loss against the Huskies, junior co-captain Kristen Casey was pleased with her team’s performance overall.

“We had a really good, challenging weekend that set us up nicely to start Ivy League play this weekend,” Casey said. “Our win against BC today was a great team win where everyone made really valuable contributions.”

HARVARD 3, BOSTON COLLEGE 1

The match against Boston College mirrored the Crimson’s previous match against Northeastern. After losing the first set 18-25, Harvard won three straight sets to claim a win against the Eagles.

“We executed a great game plan against Boston College,” Crimson coach Jennifer Weiss said. “We just had a lot of people doing their jobs, both offensively and defensively. We really stuck to what our system was and we found some success with that.”

After a close match on Saturday against the Huskies, the Crimson was in for a similar experience against BC. The team posted scores of 25-18 and 25-21 to win the second and third sets before earning a hard-fought win of 25-23 in the final set. The team found success in numbers, with 12 players contributing to the win.

“We have depth on our team that we haven’t necessarily had in the past which is going to make us really adaptable and allow us to make a lot of adjustments based on our opponents,” Casey said.

Weiss agreed, pointing out the importance of the adjustments made in the two matches this weekend.

“Northeastern and BC are pretty different in terms of how they run their offense and defense, so we did have to adjust to that,” Weiss said. “We made some blocking adjustments for each opponent and had some offensive strategies that are a little bit different…it worked out well.”

The Crimson jumped out to an early lead in the fourth stanza before BC tied the game at seven. Harvard then pulled away and earned a match point at 24-21. The Eagles fought back, scoring the next two points, but Harvard held off the late rally and won the match to move to 5-3 on the year.  It was the first time the Crimson has beaten BC since 2002.

“BC plays in a really good conference and they’re great competition, so we feel really good about that victory,” Casey said.

Sophomore outside hitter Kathleen Wallace led the team with 15 kills, while junior Caroline Walters and freshman Grace Weghorst added 11 apiece.

NORTHEASTERN 3, HARVARD 1

Harvard proved unable to overcome Northeastern’s 22-game home court win streak, losing its first match of the tournament in four sets.

The match was close throughout, but a streak of six errors at the end of the fourth set proved to be the Crimson’s downfall as a 17-17 tie quickly became a 24-17 match point for the Huskies. While a kill by freshman setter Corinne Bain brought the team within six, the Crimson was unable to gain momentum and lost the set by a score of 25-18.

“Northeastern is a good team,” Casey said. “I think we wish we could get some moments back in that match Saturday night, but we played hard.”

Harvard jumped out to an early lead in the match, registering seven kills in the first set to win by a score of 25-14. But the Huskies squad came roaring back in the second. Northeastern notched 19 kills to Harvard’s seven as it raced out to an 8-2 lead and never looked back, winning by a score of 25-15.

The Crimson kept it much closer in the third and fourth frames, losing by scores of 20-25 and 18-25, respectively. Walters once again aided the team with both offensive and defensive pressure at the net. The junior led the team in both blocks and kills, registering a career-high nine blocks and adding seven kills.

While the team was unable to pull off a win, Weiss was still happy with the way the offensive systems played out overall.

“We played really well,” Weiss said. “The score doesn’t indicate it, but [the match] was close all the way up to the fourth set, so I was pleased with the way we performed there.”