W. Volleyball Climbs Out of Ivy Cellar

Rage-to-riches stories are not as common as we would like to believe. No matter how many "Mighty Duck" movies Disney puts out or how many times one watches "The Natural," it is quite rare for a cellar-dweller to rocket to the top of the standings.

Over the past few years, the Harvard women's volleyball team has presented a more realistic scenario. In 1992 the Crimson was rather terrible, going winless in the Ivy League and 4-14 overall. And 1993 wasn't too much better, as the denizens of the MAC stumbled to a 9-16 mark--only really moving to the ceiling of the proverbial dungeon.

But the 1994 season saw Harvard coach Jennifer Bates reel in a horde of prospects, including would-be starters Lolita Lopez, Sarah Logan and Elissa Hart. That's a lot of the lineup--only seven play regularly, since Harvard substitutes co-captain Judy Iriye for Hart when she rotates to the back row.

The newcomers did the job. The Crimson finished at a respectable 12-17 overall and 3-4 in the Ivy League, good enough to be tied for fourth place in the league.

The problem with coming out of the depths, however, was that Harvard still had to get its eyes adjusted to the light. One of the freshmen, Lopez, set from the 5-1 offense, which meant that she was supposed to touch the ball on every play. More than perhaps any other sport, a volleyball player needs to be totally comfortable with her teammates, and changing setters will inevitably upset that.

Still, the Crimson never was quite as good as it though it could be. In three tries, Harvard couldn't beat Brown, its companions in the Ivy's fourth place.

The second defeat was perhaps the most bitter. After taking two of the first three games (15-8, 8-15, 15-2) the Crimson blew the match, dropping the fourth game, 14-16, and the fifth, 11-15. Harvard only won two out of seven five-game matches on the season.

"We pretty much knew what to expect against Brown, although we were hoping that we could play a little better than we did [in the first match against Brown]," co-captain Rachel Heit said. "We were confident that we could do better."

However, one should not get the impression that the 1994 season was three months of woe. Harvard did go 3-4 in the Ivy League, with wins over Columbia in four games, Dartmouth in three and League-power Cornell in five. A record just below .500 is not bad unless you're the Globetrotters.

Harvard would face Dartmouth and Columbia again in the Harvard Invitational and the Ivy League Tournament, respectively. And in these matches, the Crimson beat the holy you know what out of its opponents, winning each in three games.

Yes, it was rather ironic to see the Harvard women's volleyball team treat some of its opponents like Raid treats roaches. But that's what going to happen when a team comes out of the doldrums. It's all just another trophy on the wall for the Crimson, a wall that's all too empty at the moment.