W. Volleyball Extends Hold on Ivy Lead

At the time, it sounded like false optimism.

When the Harvard women’s volleyball team dropped three straight games to open its season, junior middle hitter Mariah Pospisil remained positive.

“I think we definitely have the team chemistry,” Pospisil said. “It’s the best since I’ve been here. Once we get into the groove of competition we’ll be great.”

Less than a month later, the Crimson has found its groove.

With dominating victories over league foes Columbia and Cornell this weekend, Harvard (10-7, 6-0 Ivy) has won nine of its last 10 matches and remains alone atop the Ivy standings for the second consecutive week.

“It just feels really good to be on top,” said sophomore middle blocker Kaego Ogbechie. “I’m sure that any athlete would say that.”

The standout was, predictably enough, Ogbechie.

Ogbechie, always the offensive star, also paced the Crimson defense. With junior libero Nathalie Miller out with a sprained ankle, Ogbechie was forced to play all of her rotations and posted match-high totals in kills and digs in each contest.

“[Miller] can do it all,” Ogbechie said. “We miss her, but it’s worked out fine.”

Harvard will look to continue streaking through the league when it travels to Penn and Princeton this weekend, the beginning of a four-match road trip.

Harvard 3, Cornell 0

In a matchup of the Ivy League’s top two teams, Harvard smacked the Big Red in a 3-0 (30-27, 30-25, 30-19) sweep.

The Crimson grew progressively stronger with each game, before closing out the Big Red (11-7, 4-2) in front of a rowdy crowd at the Malkin Athletic Center.

Ogbechie posted 19 digs and 15 kills, to lead the Crimson.

Also starring was fellow sophomore, outside hitter Pernilla Schweitzer. Schweitzer, now fully recovered from a shoulder injury that sidelined her for six games, added 13 kills and seven digs.

Junior outside hitter Allison Bendush posted 11 kills and 9 digs, and sophomore outside hitter Ashley Atkins chipped in 10 digs.

Senior setter Mindy Jellin had 40 assists.

Harvard 3, Columbia 1

Led by Jellin, Schweitzer and Ogbechie, the Crimson battled past surging Columbia (7-12, 0-6) to remain undefeated in the conference with a 3-1 (30-20, 28-30, 30-18, 37-35) victory.

The sophomore tandem of Ogbechie (26 kills and 24 digs) and Schweitzer (16 kills and 19 digs) both posted doubles-doubles.

Offensively, they were set up by Jellin, who added 59 assists in the four-game match, four shy of her career high of 63.

The Crimson opened with an easy game one victory behind a strong defensive performance. The Lions could only manage a meager .020 kill percentage in the game.

However, the squads split games two and three to set up the marathon fourth game, that Harvard finally took with consecutive points to extend its winning streak to three games.

“What I feel best about is that we’ve earned our wins,” Ogbechie said. “We’ve worked for every point and every match.”

—Staff writer Lande A. Spottswood can be reached at spottsw@fas.harvard.edu.