M.I.T. Shuts Down Harvard Spikers

The Harvard men's volleyball team, suffering from a lack of height and experience, lost to M.I.T. last night in three straight games.

The 15-7, 15-12, 15-0 defeat was the third consecutive for the spikers and dropped the Crimson's record to 1-6. M.I.T. saw its record climb to 3-1.

Harvard jumped out to a 5-3 lead in the opening game at M.I.T.'s Rockwell Cage, but the Engineers rattled off nine unanswered points and outscored Harvard, 12-2, enroute to a 15-7 first-game victory in front of the assembled 100 fans.

But the Crimson spikers rebounded against their cross-town rivals in the following game, scoring three straight points to take a 10-9 lead. A successful block by 6-ft., 4-in. Engineer Paul Daly tied the contest.

Harvard regained the lead at 12-11, but good placement by the Engineers and another Daly block paved the way for a 15-12 M.I.T. victory. Not until the final play of the game did more than two points separate the two squads.

"The second game was close," Crimson spiker Eric Olson said. "We could've taken it, but we just didn't have the edge."

Highlights

Substituting height for experience, Crimson Coach Ishan Gurdal inserted four replacements into the lineup at the start of the third game, and the Engineers took no more than 15 minutes to whitewash the visitors, 15-0.

Harvard next sees action this weekend when it hosts Yale and Dartmouth on Saturday.