Now Healthy, W. Spikers Pray for Wins

For a while, the Harvard women's volleyball team could have kept a small hospital busy.

Injuries, including one suffered by star Co-Captain Jennifer Garcia, hamstrung Harvard in the first half of its season: The Crimson limped to a 3-6 record in a year where it expected to perform much better.

But now, well, now is different. Now is healthy. Now is better--chiefly because Garcia is back.

When Jennifer got injured, it affected the entire team's team's confidence," junior Melissa McSherry said.

Garcia says that she's fully recovered, but her team has not rebounded as nicely. Without Garcia, Coach Wayne Lem has struggled to find a steady lineup. And this weekend, the answers will not come easily: Ivy powers Pennsylvania (4-8) and Princeton (11-1) are in town. Princeton lost only three players from last year's strong squad, and boasts a talented freshman class--the product of good recruiting, said Garcia.

"Princeton recruits very heavily out of California," Garcia said (Californians and volleyball, of course, are like Texans and failing S&L's.)

Penn is 4-8, but it is the only team to beat Princeton this year.

The real goal of the weekend, though, is not winning. (Well, that's not entirely true.) The Crimson needs to find a stable base for the team to build on. Lem's biggest problem is incorporating the team's six freshmen into the lineup.

"We've been working with the chemistry of the team," freshman Jennifer Jose said. "Once we get our intensity level up, we play really well, but we get started late."

"Up until now, our coach has been struggling to find a lineup which will work," Garcia said. "Hopefully, this weekend we'll find a combination of people that work well together."

For a team that is virtually starting Its season over again, the weekend will not be easy. "The matches will be a good test of our ability to come together as a team. It will require that we are mentally up," McSherry said. "We're going to have to work our way back."