W. Volleyball Tops Rutgers, Finishes 1-2 at Fairfield Classic

It wasn't ideal, but the Harvard women's volleyball team got some much-needed matches under its belt this weekend.

The Crimson won a match and dropped two at the Fairfield Fall Classic.

Harvard (3-3) lost to host Fairfield (12-0) on Friday and then stayed around to beat Rutgers (4-7) and lose to St. John's (6-4) on the neutral court Saturday.

"It was definitely a long weekend," junior middle hitter Katherine Hart said. "It was tough competition. But we competed with them."

Fairfield 3, Harvard 1

Fairfield, which is enjoying its best start in team history, won the first game 15-10 before the Crimson stormed back to a 15-10 win in the second game.

It was downhill from there for the Crimson.

Fairfield finished off the match with 15-7 and 15-3 wins in the final two games.

"The first two games of our match, I didn't think that they had anything special," Hart said. "The third and fourth games, they came out strong and really caught on fire."

Hart led the team with 15 kills. Sophomore Erin Denniston added 13 kills and senior Linda Jellison contributed 10 kills and served two aces.

Junior setter Julie Yick had 42 assists and nine digs.

Harvard 3, Rutgers 1

Harvard's second match of the weekend was a marathon-length, nail-biting 16-14, 16-14, 13-15, 16-14 win over Rutgers.

"It was the longest four-game match I've ever played," Hart said. "The Fairfield coach said it was the best match of the tournament."

The end of the match was anti-climactic, however.

"There were some questionable calls from the ref, which is not how you want to end the match," Hart said. "[But] I feel like we deserved to win. We earned all of the points that led up to the last couple."

Junior Angela Lutich led the Crimson with a 22-kill, 22-dig performance.

Jellison, Denniston and Hart added 17, 12 and 10 kills, respectively. Yick contributed a whopping 62 assists.

Harvard was out-killed 77-74 in the 2:20 match.

St. John's 3, Harvard 2

In Harvard's final match of the tournament, the Crimson got an early two-game lead, only to drop the final three in a two-hour match.

Behind Hart's kills, the Crimson won the first two games 16-14 and 15-3.

Hart, who would make the all-tournament team, finished the match with 17 kills and 11 digs.

But the momentum quickly swung in the Red Storm's favor. St. John's retaliated with a 15-4 win in the third game before holding off a pesky Harvard team in the final two games, winning 15-12 and 15-11.

Jellison and Denniston had 14 kills and Lutich added 13. Jellison served three aces.

Yick had 51 assists in the losing cause.

Harvard has no time to rest as the Crimson hosts Boston College Wednesday evening at the MAC.

The Crimson fell 3-2 to the Eagles in Harvard's first match of the season, but it was B. C.'s sixth match.

"They were just more polished than we were," Hart said. "We've come a long way since we played them. I think that all the teams we played this weekend were stronger than Boston College."