Crimson Season Opens on Sour Note

In a weekend marked by several near-victories, the Harvard men’s volleyball team lost its first two games of the season to Quincy on Friday night and Lewis on Saturday afternoon at the Malkin Athletic Center.

Competing for the first time in 2006 after having captured the Sweeney Division title last season, the Crimson (0-2) did not manage to win a match despite serving as host of the Crimson Classic/EIVA-MIVA Challenge. Harvard lost 3-2 to the Hawks (30-25, 30-23, 27-30, 27-30, 15-12) and 3-0 to the Flyers (30-18, 30-25, 32-30).

Senior middle hitter Seamus McKiernan, an EIVA Second Team All-East selection last season, continued his torrid play to start the 2006 season with two double-doubles, finishing with 31 kills and 31 digs.

But Quincy (2-0) and Lewis (2-0), the visitors from the MIVA, swept the weekend from the EIVA, each defeating Harvard and Rutgers-Newark (0-2).

Unfortunately for the Crimson, the team will not be able to recover from its losses with on-the-court action until after its exam break on Jan. 30, when Puerto Rico-Mayaguez comes to town.

LEWIS 3, HARVARD 0

The Crimson was ranked No. 1 in the Hay Division in the EIVA preseason poll, but the team that came out to play Saturday would remain far from the top.

After junior setter Dave Fitz went down with an injury during warm-ups, an unprepared team took the court.

“That made us not only switch the setter position, but switch everyone around,” captain Seamus McKiernan said. “We haven’t practiced for that, [and] everyone was a little out of position, so it confused us in the first two games.”

The inexperience showed.

The first game brought numerous mistakes from Harvard: the team was dominated by the Flyers in a 30-18 loss, finishing with a .000 hitting percentage and five missed serves.

“The one thing I wasn’t worried about was our attacking, and we didn’t attack well,” Crimson coach Chris Ridolfi said. “We haven’t focused on attacking quite as much, and this weekend it showed.”

In the second set Harvard came out strong, matching Lewis point-for-point until the teams were tied at 20.

But the Flyers were able to capitalize on additional Crimson hitting and service errors to finish on a 10-5 run and post a 30-25 victory.

Harvard finally seemed to have pulled itself together in the third game. The Crimson started off strong, thanks to fewer errors and more accurate hitting.

When Lewis pulled ahead 29-27 for game point, Harvard coolly fought back to tie the game at 29, with key kills from McKiernan, who finished the day with 14.

But the Flyers were too much for the Crimson to handle. The team closed out the match with a kill and an ace to win 32-30.

“They came out with a lot more fire, and that’s something we didn’t bring,” McKiernan said. “We didn’t have the heart in the first game. We had it in the third game, but it was a little too late.”

QUINCY 3, HARVARD 2

Harvard fell a single victory short against Quincy.

Two games in, it appeared the Hawks had the Crimson played perfectly.

In the first set, Quincy jumped out to a 9-5 lead and never looked back on its way to a 30-25 win.

Harvard showed some strength, especially from McKiernan—who registered a double-double with 17 kills and 20 digs—and freshman Brady Weissbound, but that was not enough to overcome missed serves, hitting errors, and out-of-rotation calls.

The second game did not bring improvement.

The Crimson went up 3-2 early on, but never led again on the way to a 30-23 loss. The team finished hitting -.172 with just six kills for the game.

But the Hawks didn’t know what hit them when the Crimson turned its play around in the third game.

“We made a couple of changes in the rotation, just to give them a different look, add a little bit more size to the net,” Ridolfi said. “We started to cut down on our mistakes, our offense added a little bit, so we started to even out.”

The teams battled point-for-point until the Crimson pulled ahead 25-24 on a kill from Weissbound, winning 30-27.

Harvard continued its charge in the fourth game.

Jumping out to an early 6-3 lead, the Crimson battled back and forth with the Hawks, thanks to .353 hitting and big contributions from Fitz, who finished with 20 digs and 44 assists.

After battling back and forth, Harvard took the lead 23-22 and never looked back on its way to a 30-27 victory.

But in the fifth game, the error-filled play of the first two games reappeared.

After taking the lead 5-4 on a kill from captain John Freese, the Crimson lost five straight points on the way to a 15-12 loss.

“We can’t beat a team of that quality making the mistakes that we made,” Ridolfi said. “I think we have a pretty good idea of where we should be playing—it’s just a matter of keeping us there consistently.”

—Staff writer Madeleine I. Shapiro can be reached at mshapiro@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Karan Lodha contributed to the reporting of this article.