With Garcia Back, W. Spikers Hopeful

Like a football team without a quarterback, the women's volleyball team has struggled through most of its games this season without setter Jennifer Garcia.

The team hopes, however, to give its 3-11 record a jolt in the positive direction this weekend as it hosts Princeton, Brown and Boston College at the Harvard Invitational.

Co-Captain Garcia has recovered from early-season injuries which kept her sidelined for most of the season.

Lem said the team has been struggling at the setter position since Garcia went down with a knee injury in the first game of the season.

Garcia, who has been practicing for a week and a half, is confident that Harvard will be able to pull off an upset.

"We had a really good practice last night," said Garcia. "Everyone's feeling pretty relaxed."

Harvard will use this weekend's tournament as a tune-up for the season-ending Ivy League championships, which it hosts on November 14.

"[This tournament] is important to us because it's our last showing before we go into the Ivies," senior Co-Captain Michelle Carlo said.

Though the team lost to this weekend's three challengers earlier in the season, Lem speculated that the team would do "really well" here.

"A lot of teams aren't going to be prepared for us," he said. "We're due for a [strong showing.]"

Harvard will certainly have to be more prepared this weekend that it has been in the past. In the Crimson's last contests against Brown and Princeton, Harvard was blanked 3-0.