W. Volleyball Beats Dartmouth 3-1

The Harvard women’s volleyball team defeated Dartmouth for the second time in eight days on Friday night, winning the match 3-1 (35-33, 23-30, 30-25, 30-21) in Dartmouth’s Leede Arena.

Junior outside hitter Kaego Ogbechie registered a match-high 21 kills in only her second start of the season due to a torn patella tendon.

“I’m always the first to say that I made mistakes,” Ogbechie said. “I still feel that it might be some time until I’m playing the way I wish to play—with a lot less errors.”

The Crimson (3-9, 2-0 Ivy) relied on its defensive play to propel itself to victory over the Big Green (6-7, 0-2 Ivy). Harvard registered 91 digs, led by co-captain and defensive specialist Allison Bendush’s 21.

“Our defense against Dartmouth was very strong,” Bendush said. “It was one of those nights when the blockers and back-row players were working together to set up a solid defense.”

The Crimson coasted to victory in game four, taking the lead early on and never feeling any pressure or threat of a Dartmouth rally thereafter. The easy win came on the heels of three intense games that could have gone either way.

Harvard and the Big Green remained neck-and-neck for most of game three. The Crimson grabbed a 25-23 lead and pulled away by taking five of the final seven points to win 30-25.

The earlier games were more difficult, since Harvard found itself big deficits out of the gate.

In game one, Dartmouth jumped out strong, only to have the Crimson slowly chip away at the lead. Harvard finally caught the Big Green to tie the game at 27 and the Crimson completed the rally to take the game 35-33.

“[Dartmouth] plays up to us every time we meet,” Ogbechie said. “And we knew that taking the first game would sway the momentum in our favor.”

The lone Harvard loss came in the second game. The Big Green took the first eight points of the frame and never looked back.

“We have this tendency of digging ourselves a hole early in games,” Bendush said. “In game two, we let the score get to 0-8 before we even started to respond.  In game three, we started off point for point with Dartmouth and I think that made a huge difference in the outcome of the game.”

—Staff writer Michael R. James can be reached at mrjames@fas.harvard.edu.