Exhausted M. Spikers Bounce Big Green

Time to make the doughnuts...

Sunday morning, the exhausted Harvard men's volleyball team chowed twisty doughnuts at Lou's Bakery in Hanover, N.H., before challenging Dartmouth in its fourth road match in six days.

When the flour had settled, Harvard had awakened to beat Dartmouth, 3-2.

"It was a hard match," Harvard Coach Ihsan Gurdal said. "We started flat and Dartmouth was fired up."

Harvard (3-5 overall) rolled to a 15-7 victory in the opening game after surviving away matches on Tuesday, Thursday and a five-team tournament at Roger Williams College on Saturday.

Freshman Cody Church stepped in for the sick Albert Kim at outside hitter and provided the Crimson with solid play up front. Church's slams were instrumental in helping the team prevail over the Big Green.

"Their outside block was nullified by Cody's play," outside hitter Gino Patrizio said.

The caffeine from Lou's coffee wore off in time for the Crimson to drop the next two games, 15-11 and 15-9.

Dartmouth was supported up front by the stalwart play of junior Captain-Coach David Vacaro. Vacaro served well and made some key blocks in the Big Green's two wins.

"They were serving well and blocking well," Gurdal said. "They came out ready to beat us."

Down 2-1 in the best-of-five match, the Crimson looked to Vince Marin and Brian Ehrlich to lead a fourth-game rally. Harvard shellacked the Big Green, 15-7.

With the match tied, both teams dug in for the final game. The deciding game was scored by "speed points, "where a team can win points on its opponent's serve.

The Crimson started with a vengeance, taking a7-2 lead. Freshman Per Dutton, playing his firstleague match, pleasantly shocked his teammateswith strong blocks and quality digs from themiddle hitter position.

The Big Green closed the gap, drawing even at13-13. Harvard clinched the win after Marin savedmatch point with an outstanding back dig to keepthe ball in play. The Crimson won, 15-13, quellingthe threat from the weaker Dartmouth team.

"We played average, but showed some character,"Marin said. "Previously we wouldn't have pulled itout. We didn't get down on each other and workedtogether."

THE NOTEBOOK: Marin was named to theAll-Tournament team on Saturday at RogerWilliams... Coach Gurdal will leave the team onMarch 12 in order to fulfill a mandatory two-monthtour in the Turkish Army... The Crimson hits theroad yet again tonight, travelling to Springfieldto take on its undefeated league rival