W. Volleyball Can’t Keep Pace With BC, Loses 3-1

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass.—From rout to routed in the span of one game.

After taking the second game 30-18, the Harvard women’s volleyball team found itself on the opposite side of a 30-16 decision in the third—a 26-point swing—as the Crimson fell to Boston College last night 3-1 (34-32, 18-30, 30-16, 30-22) at Power Gymnasium.

Captain Kaego Ogbechie and senior outside hitter Nilly Schweitzer each recorded a team-high 12 kills.

Ogbechie added 22 digs to lead the Harvard defensive effort, while freshman outside hitter Laura Mahon and junior libero Elizabeth Blotky added 14 apiece.

The Crimson posted six aces—including three by Blotky—but committed 11 service errors on the evening.

“Committing that many service errors is a big mistake,” Ogbechie said. “It’s something we need to think about and work on heading into our game on Friday [against Columbia].”

The two sides split the first two games, but BC asserted itself in the third, running off 10 of the final eleven points in the frame for a 30-16 win. The Crimson failed to register a single kill during the final 17 points and recorded only seven in all of game three.

“They turned it on, and we really didn’t respond,” said Harvard coach Jennifer Weiss. “We didn’t step up to the challenge, but we’ve got to draw from this and go forward into the Ivy [season].”

The kill drought carried over into the fourth frame as Harvard went the first 13 points of the game without a kill until Schweitzer slammed one home to reduce the Crimson deficit to 10-4. Harvard closed the gap to three, 12-9, on the strength of two kills, an ace and two Eagle attack errors.

BC snapped off three straight points to push its lead to six and extended it to eight, 21-13, prompting a Crimson timeout.

But the pause in play did little to stem the surging Eagles, as BC outside hitter Allison Anderson recorded three straight aces to give her squad a double-digit advantage. Trailing 29-17, the Crimson ran off five straight points, forcing the Eagles to call a timeout, but a BC registered a match-clinching block on the first point after the stoppage for the 30-22 game four win.

Harvard took the first two points of the first game, but the Eagles took advantage of two Crimson net violations and a couple unforced errors during an early 9-3 run that put BC up four.

Trailing 13-9 coming out of a timeout, Harvard ran off six of the next seven points—three on two kills and an ace by Mahon—to retake the lead. The Crimson pressed its advantage, pushing its lead to 18-15 after two consecutive Schweitzer kills.

Harvard claimed a four-point lead, 22-18, after BC’s Verena Rost misfired on a set directly out of an Eagle timeout. The Crimson maintained that margin until BC put together a 5-0 run to take a 26-25 lead. Harvard bounced right back to take three out of the next four points and four of six for a 29-28 advantage, earning its first game point. The Crimson seemed to have the game wrapped up on the next point, as a bad Eagle pass forced BC just to lob the ball across the net. The placement was perfect, however, and Harvard couldn’t scramble the ball back to the Eagles’ side.

BC would take the next point as well, and after the two sides went back and forth for a few points before outside hitter Katie Andersen converted a tip kill to give the Eagles game one, 34-32.

“It comes down to some of the simple things we have to focus on like serving and passing,” Weiss said. “BC turned up their game a little bit and played really aggressively and we couldn’t execute.”

There was no hangover effect after the emotional first frame, as the Crimson immediately staked itself to a 7-3 lead early in game two.

BC rallied to close the deficit to two, taking advantage of three unforced Harvard errors. But the Crimson responded to claim five of the next six points for a 15-9 lead, including an emphatic block by Ogbechie that shifted the momentum back to Harvard’s side of the net.

After an Eagle timeout, the Crimson kept rolling, twice pushing its lead to nine and forcing another BC stoppage. Harvard took four of the final five points for the 30-18 victory in the second game.

“A lot of the comeback had to do with confidence,” Ogbechie said. “We were a better team than them, and we showed it in the second game.”

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