Harvard Falls to No. 6 BYU Twice in Spring Break Competition

While most college students use Spring Break as a time to relax and recover, Harvard men’s volleyball (6-9, 4-2 EIVA) traveled nearly 2,500 miles to face No. 8 Brigham Young University (14-6, 2-2 MPSF), ultimately falling 2-0 in two tough battles.

Harvard came out during Saturday’s game ready for battle, but was ultimately bested by the ranked Cougars 3-0. While the Crimson came back with a vengeance on Monday for a second game, BYU fought back harder and took the game 3-1.

Harvard 0, BYU 3

The Crimson had an opportunity to steal a big lead early in the first set against the mighty Cougars, but squandered the chance at the service line. These early service errors defined the theme of the match as neither team found their footing.

Harvard took the first point of the game with a kill by senior outside hitter Owen Fanning. Fanning then committed a service error. This started a pattern for the Crimson as the next four points also went to Harvard kill followed by a service error.

The third Crimson service error sparked a 9-2 run for BYU, pushing the score to 11-5 before Harvard called a timeout.

But something seemed to click during the timeout as the Crimson not only stopped the bleeding, but launched a rebuttal run. Sophomore outside hitter Quinn Bishop and middle blocker Owen Woolbert combined for two strong blocks and senior outside hitter Logan Shephard served up multiple kills that got Harvard back in the game.

Just when Harvard seemed poised to level the score after cutting the Cougar lead to two, BYU once again flexed its muscles. The Cougars used two service aces and two Crimson errors to push the lead back to six and force another Harvard timeout at 20-14.

The Crimson never got back within two as service errors killed the team in a 25-21 first set loss. Harvard combined for 11 service errors across seven players

Both teams came out sloppy in the second set. The teams combined for four straight service errors early on to give BYU a 6-3 lead. The first two sets were defined by both teams’ inability to consistently serve.

The squads traded kills in the leadup to the first media time out with the Cougars ultimately claiming a 15-9 lead at the break. From there, BYU’s lead oscillated between five and six for much of the set before ultimately ending at seven in a 25-18 second set.

Starring a sweep in the face, the Crimson came out aggressive in the third set. Senior outside hitter Andrew Lobo, who had been injured for much of the season, made a loud return by scoring Harvard’s first three points of the set.

The Crimson hung with the Cougars early, but the strong blocking game of BYU opened up a 10-5 lead for the Cougars following two consecutive blocks and an attacking error by Harvard.

BYU continued to prove themselves throughout the third set. A Crimson crew that competed with Hawaii and defeated Penn State, two highly rated foes, seemed helpless at times against the Cougars. BYU surged to a 15-7 lead to draw the media timeout. The Cougars ended the set up 25-15 which was the largest lead of the set and match.

Errors killed Harvard throughout the short match. The Crimson ended with 19 service errors and 23 attacking errors. Luckily for Harvard, BYU also struggled from the service line as the Cougars logged 18 service errors. The difference in the match was BYU’s crisp attack in comparison to the Crimson’s struggling offense.

Harvard 1, BYU 3

Harvard started its second game against the Cougars with a fire coming off their loss. Scoring bounced back and forth between the two teams for the first half of the set until BYU found a four-point run halfway through the set.

Harvard fell to a few swift kills from BYU before bouncing back for a point. The Crimson was then able to benefit from three errors to take the lead 18-17 and force the Cougars to take a timeout.

But the team wasn’t finished. The Crimson came out of the time out with an ace from senior setter James Bardin helped Harvard to push farther forward.

Despite sacrificing two points to BYU, the Crimson was unrelenting and forced forward for a 23-19 score that burned a second Cougars timeout. BYU came back from the timeout with a fire, but was unable to match Harvard’s strength.

A kill from sophomore middle Owen Woolbert gave Harvard the set point before a BYU service error closed off the set 25-21.

Harvard couldn’t bring the same energy into the second set and allowed BYU to take three points at the start of the matchup.

While Harvard was able to sneak in two points off of BYU service errors, the Cougars persisted for a four-point run that brought the score to 2-8 and forced Harvard into a timeout.

Harvard was unable to get back to full efforts after the timeout, and was unable to overcome its early loss in the game. The Crimson called a timeout at 11-21, but it proved ineffective as BYU persisted and closed out the set 14-25.

The Crimson found its footing again in the third set, it was able to return almost everything BYU sent, bringing the score to 8-7. While BYU claimed a brief lead off of Harvard’s offensive shortcomings, the team did not stop battling back.

Throughout the set, the score difference was only greater than two once, marking a nail-biting round for the two teams. After Harvard again tied things up 20-20, BYU got their footing and scored twice off of a Harvard service error and subsequent faulty attack.

Harvard called its first timeout of the match, which BYU quickly followed with a kill, forcing another timeout. But BYU wasn’t done, and played off of Harvard to prepare itself to take the set 20-25.

Harvard and BYU started the fourth set trading points, never allowing the difference to eclipse one point until BYU benefited off of two attacking errors, bringing the score to 8-11.

A block by Fanning, the senior outside, and junior middle Brian Thomas brought Harvard back into the game and raised the score 9-11.

After BYU squeezed one more point out of Harvard, the Crimson got on a roll with a four-point run that helped recover the difference and tied things back up at 14-14.

BYU and Harvard pushed back and forth for the remainder of the set until the Cougars got two points off of Harvard, bringing the score to 20-22 and forcing Harvard into a timeout.

The Cougars returned from the timeout with a service error, giving Harvard one last point before the Cougars cleaned up the set with an ace and final score of 25-21.

The Crimson has the chance to enjoy the rest of spring break before returning for a three game weekend at home against George Mason University and Daemen University on Mar. 28, 29, and 30.

—Staff writer Elyse C. Goncalves can be reached at elyse.goncalves@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @e1ysegoncalves.

—Staff writer Reed M. Trimble can be reached at reed.trimble@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @ReedTrimble1.