Women Spikers Bow Twice In Weekend Action at Williams

Until Saturday, the Harvard women's volleyball team had been performing like a finely tuned, sleek and sophisticated imported automobile. But at Williams, the spikers--zipping along at about 60 m.p.h.--lost control of the wheel and smashed into a brick wall. And that's when Crimson Coach Karyn Altman realizd that it was time for an overhaul.

Harvard lost two out of three poorly played matches to Albany State and Williams, unable to muster a single game in either of the contests. Fortunately, the Crimson managed to salvage the afternoon by conquering some school called Russell State, 2-0.

After the squad performed competitively towards the beginning of the first match of the day, against Albany, "everything went wrong for the rest of the games," Altman said yesterday, "I would say that all our fundamentals went, receiving and serving. None of that was there."

While the Crimson performed sloppily for the day's initial two matches, the day ended on an optimistic note, showing that Harvard had enough maturity to concentrate its efforts and play sound volleyball. "In the third match people regrouped. The serves started to go in and we hit the ball," Altman said.

Because of the disappointing day, Altman--who has religiously substituted second string spikers into the lineup and tinkered with several starting combinations--said that she and Assistant Coach Bob Cassels have determined one starting lineup. "We'll be subbing but only when necessary," she said. "We've been experimenting with different teams, and at this point it's been hurting us."

Freshman Anna Collins will be Position at either strong setter or middle with all-Ivy senior Margaret Cheng setting Junior Ellen Schreiber will continue to occupy the slot of strong side hitter and Nina Henderson will start as center blacker Sophomore Cecilia Meagher will see substantial playing time but her starting will depend where Altman puts Collins. Altman said she would not reveal the team's final first stringer.