Volleyball Cruises Past LIU

It wasn't supposed to be this easy.

Yesterday at the Malkin Athletic Center, the Harvard men's volleyball team routed traditional power Long Island University, three games to none (15-11, 15-12, 16-14), improving its record to a perfect 3-0 on the season.

"I think that we played better than we expected to," senior middle hitter Chris Wood said. "LIU is definitely the toughest team that we have played."

All three games were close but the most serious threat to the Crimson Sweep came in the final game.

LIU had four game-point situations, but was unable to capitalize on any of them, thanks to a string of Harvard spikes that fortuitously nicked the line.

Then, with the score knotted at 14, sophomore setter Petey Buletza stuffed a LIU spike attempt all be himself.

The Crimson won the next point to win the match.

"That guy had hit it off my hand a couple of times," Buletza said. "So [Harvard] coach [Ihsan Gurdal] told me to move a little bit outside, and I barely blocked it in."

The match was a huge improvement over sloppy showings against MIT and Dartmouth; Harvard was running very smoothly on all fronts yesterday.

"We were in sync," Wood said. "I think that taking off this weekend helped--it made us think.

"Our middle hitting was a lot better [than before]," he added. "It was our goal to improve on that after the Dartmouth game."

The Crimson also passed more accurately than it had in previous games.

"Today we passed pretty well," Buletza said. "Of course, there were our usual lapses, though."

As big of an opponent as LIU was, Harvard faces tougher competition this upcoming weekend in the Golden Dome Classic.

There, the Crimson must face Eastern powerhouses Rutgers Newark and Penn state, plus the University of California-Berkeley.

"It's a real honor to be in this "tournament," Buletza said. "We played real well last year, and the program's getting better and better."