Volleyballers Spike Roger Williams

"Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me."

It was devious. It was ugly. And maybe it was a little bit petty. But Harvard's men's volleyball team was smirking after destroying Roger Williams Tuesday night in Providence, smirking like a little boy who has just beaten up the grade school wise-ass.

"It left wonderful," junior middle hitter Ned Staebler said. "We didn't play all that well--it certainly wasn't a perfect game, but it felt good."

Staebler and company were aglow in part bacause the Crimson's 15-3, 15-12, 15-10 win came after an odd encounter with the men from Rhode Island earlier this season. At a tournament at Vassar earlier this season, the Crimson played a rough game against a less-than-stellar Concordia. Throughout the game, the roger Williams players, waiting for their game to begin, sat at courtside laughing at the Crimson's poor play.

"It was really annoying," sophomore Pete Buletza said. "It wasn't our best game, and they weren't making it any better."

"It actually worked out well for us in the end, though, Staebler said. "I reminded the guys of the event before the game the other night, and it was a good motivation factor."

Motivating factor, schmotivating factor.

The difference in the game the other night was not so much in the mind s it was in the middle--the middle of the court, that is.

Roger Williams sported a comparatively small middle front, enabling Crimson middle hitters Staebler and senior Jon Elisor to go wild.

"Basically all we did all night was set it to John and Ned and let them hit it wherever," Buletza said. "We destroyed them."

"It was a lot of him," conceded Staebler. "We had a field day. We were launching them all along their side of the court."

Harvard's strategy proved extremely successful in the first game, with the Crimson getting off to a quick lead and never looking back.

The second and third games proved slightly more challenging, however, as Roger Williams tired desperately to stay in the game.

"They were playing really hard near the end, but it never was really out of control," Buletza said. "We just outmatched them .We were the better team."

"It was a lot like the LIU (Long Island) game earlier this year," Staebler said. "They had seen us at that meet and were expecting to roll over us--that meet wasn't our best. But we beat them too."

And like it?

"Yeah, we liked it," Staebler said.