Spikers Nab Second in Ivies; Houlihan, Ross Garner Honors

Twice the Harvard men's volleyball team played Princeton this year: twice the Crimson lost. But with a strategy change here and a good break there, the spikers hoped they could carry home an Ivy championship.

But the Tigers made a strategy change of their own and won the key points as they downed Harvard, 15-8, 15-12, in the Ivy League tournament at Princeton Saturday.

Despite the disappointing loss, the Crimson had three victories to celebrate. Senior Co-captain Tom Houlihan and freshman Jon Ross garnered All-Ivy honors, while teammate Dave Twite earned a spot on the league's second team.

In the spikers' two previous contests with Princeton this year, the Tigers proved over-powering at the sides of the net, rejecting Crimson spikes and pummeling the ball over Crimson blocks. To counter the towering opposition, Harvard Coach Mike Palm planned a shift in game plan. His charges would hit for technique from the outside, rather than attempting to force the ball through what Palm called "the best blockers in the Ivy League." Harvard would hit for power in the middle, where the spikers had enjoyed success in the first two Princeton showdowns.

Unfortunately for Palm, the Tigers altered strategy as well, shifting their blockers inside to take away the Crimson middle game. "They shot me down," Ross said.

Defense, often a weakness in Harvard's game, kept the spikers in the match. Houlihan, Jon Tanaka and Sean Doyle dove all over the court, scraping the playing surface to prevent Tiger hits from landing in the back court. Princeton often avoided the Crimson back row, however, scoring by deflecting the ball out of bounds off the hands of the Harvard blockers.

The spikers earned a semifinal berth by capturing first place in one of the tournament's two round-robin pools. Harvard dropped only one game in play against Columbia, Brown and Penn, then swept its semifinal match with Dartmouth to earn a spot in the tournament final.

As champion of the Eastern College Volleyball League's New England division, Harvard can still look forward to that league's tournament April 30.