Huskies Drop W. Spikers in Four Sets

After a great performance at the Harvard Invitational Volleyball Tournament last weekend, the Harvard women's volleyball team looked like it had finally ironed out all the problems it had earlier in the season.

But after losing to the University of Conneticut (20-13) last night, 15-6, 15-5, 14-16, 15-5, the Crimson (14-10) found out that it still has a bit to work on the next few days before this weekend's Ivy League Championship tournament.

In the first two games, the Crimson players looked sluggish. They did not serve agressively and committed numerous passing errors. They just couldn't set up their quick offense or get into any type of game rhythm.

In contrast, UConn, playing its final home match of the year in front of a sizeable crowd, served well and frustrated the Crimson hitters with a superb blocking game.

Harvard came back from a UConn match point at 14-11 to win the third set, and it looked as if it might have gained some momentum to carry into the final sets. But the Crimson ran out of steam. UConn took the finally set easily, 15-5.

The Crimson struggled early in the year, leading to three consecutive Ivy League losses against Cornell, Columbia and Yale. Since then, Harvard has improved tremendously, thundering to a four-game winning streak within Ivy League play--beating Brown, Princeton, Penn and Dartmouth in succession.

"I think we can do it," forward Carolyn Burger said. "The competition will be tough, but we have improved enough through the season to seriously challenge for the title."