Bench Strength Helps M. Volleyball Sweep MIT

It may still be February, but the snow in Harvard Yard is melting away and the men's volleyball team is ready for the spring and the start of EIVA conference play.

The Crimson (2-1) defeated MIT (0-1) 15-4, 15-3, and 16-14 last night in its first home game at the Malkin Athletic Center. After losing the first game of the year to East Stroudsberg last Sunday, Harvard is on a two-game winning streak.

"We had the first-game jitters, but I think we have played pretty well," said senior David Olson, who led the Crimson with 15 kills, giving him a team-high 37 kills for the season. "We are a very good team, at least one of the best in the past four years."

However, there is room for improvement.

"We need passing and ball-handling skills," Olson said. "But this is early in the season and those are the kinds of things that really pick up during the season, so I think we're on our way."

Harvard's first team handled the Engineers easily in the first two games, led by senior setter Evan Beachy's 18 assists. Sophomore captain Ed Pankau and junior middlebacker Evan Mager helped Olson with four and two kills, respectively.

The Crimson rested all the starters but Olson for the third game, and the Engineers made it exciting. MIT led 14-11, but Harvard held the Engineers scoreless after that. Outside hitters Kalon Morris and Josh Banerjee led the team with four and three kills, respectively, in the final game.

"In the end of the game, the best plays were made by the players that came in off the bench," Olson said.

"We should have closed it out early, but we started getting down a little bit," said senior setter Eric Lin, who replaced Beachy late in the second game and led Harvard with 19 assists. "But it was good to see the team come together and finish it out. At least we made it a little exciting for the crowd."

Engineer middlebacker Charles Morton was disappointed with his team's performance. "We got off to a slow start, and we were giving Harvard four points for every one point we scored," he said. "We have a good defense, but our offense just wasn't there tonight. We made a lot of mistakes, and we can't do that against a team like Harvard."

Olson agreed that mistakes were important last night and will be a key to Harvard's success this year.

"We need to make no mental errors," he said. "That means keeping the ball in play, siding out, and not serving the ball out of bounds."

Olson thinks the Crimson is showing signs of improvement with every game.

"The focus of this game in particular was passing and serving," he said. "In our first two games we clearly showed that we won because we could pass better and serve better than MIT."

Lin thinks there is a lot of potential for Harvard's senior-laden team.

"We have a lot of experience and we have really good hitting," he said. "If we can improve our passing and defense, we should be able to beat anyone."

Pankau said team chemistry is crucial to Harvard's chances for a successful season.

"I think we need to have a little bit more team energy and focus," the captain said.

Olson believes the energy will rise once conference play starts.

"One of our goals for this season is to be beat Princeton," he said. "They are definitely our league rivals, and they are very good."