Crimson Puts End to Ivy Losing Streak

Just like that, a season’s worth of nightmares were wiped away.

Taking the court for its first Ivy match since going winless in league play last year, the Harvard women’s volleyball team defeated travel partner Dartmouth, 3-1 (30-26, 25-30, 30-27, 30-27) Friday night at the Malkin Athletic Center, snapping a 14-match Ancient Eight losing streak.

On a weekend where the other six Ivy squads continued to face non-league opponents, the Crimson (3-5, 1-0 Ivy) and the Big Green (3-4, 0-1 Ivy) squared off in a contest that carried great weight for both teams.

Dartmouth, featuring just one senior and three juniors on its roster—just like Harvard in 2005—set out to prove that it could succeed despite its inexperience.

Meanwhile, after watching several close Ancient Eight matches slip out of its grasp last season, the Crimson needed to show that it was psychologically tough enough to win in high-pressure situations.

And just under two hours after senior Sarah Cebron served to open the match, Harvard demonstrated that it had scaled that mental barrier.

“It’s gone,” Crimson coach Jennifer Weiss said. “It was very important to do that today, and I had all the confidence in the world that our group would do it.”

Playing in front of hundreds of fans who packed into the bleachers, Harvard was effective and consistent, keeping the pressure on the Big Green with aggressive serving and a solid attack.

Junior co-captain Suzie Trimble had a career night, registering 23 kills and just one error to record a .647 hitting percentage.

“Suzie is awesome—capital letters awesome,” said fellow junior co-captain Laura Mahon. “She’s taller than a lot of other people, so if the ball is given to her and it’s a good set, she’ll probably kill it.”

The Crimson opened the match with a strong effort. After dropping the first two points, Harvard took advantage of Mahon’s aggressive jump serve to go on an 8-1 run.

But the Big Green slowly crept back and tied the score at 11, and neither team led by more than three points until the Crimson finished the frame on a 4-0 run to take Game One, 30-26.

The second frame played out in a similar fashion, featuring 10 tie scores and four lead changes.

The teams were knotted at 24, but Dartmouth won six of the next seven points to tie the match at one game apiece.

The Harvard defense took over in Game Three. Posting three blocks and forcing nine Big Green errors, the Crimson limited Dartmouth to .089 hitting en route to a 30-27 victory.

Carrying its momentum into the fourth frame, Harvard was dominant. After taking the lead at 4-3, the Crimson never trailed again, leading by as much as seven.

Only on the brink of defeat did Dartmouth respond, fighting off four match points before Mahon pounded a kill from the right side to close out the contest—erasing a whole year’s worth of bad memories.

“It was just confidence,” Trimble said. “Confidence.”

—Staff writer Karan Lodha can be reached at klodha@fas.harvard.edu.