Men's Volleyball Swept in Opener

The semester came in like a lion for the Harvard men’s volleyball team, as the Crimson fell, 3-0 (30-18, 30-21, 30-19), to the Springfield College Pride in last night’s season opener at Blake Arena in Springfield, Mass.

Harvard (0-1, 0-1 EIVA Hay) struggled to execute its offense against conference powerhouse Springfield (5-3, 1-0 EIVA Hay), which entered the match with a No. 5 ranking and seven matches already under its belt.

“Basically, we were unable to do anything well,” said co-captain and setter Dave Fitz. “Volleyball is pass-set-hit, and we couldn’t put all three of those together for more than about four times per game.”

The Pride registered 44 kills and a .442 hitting percentage over three games while the Crimson hit a dismal -.016 and posted 25 kills. Junior All-American Eric Palumbo led the Pride with 20 kills, three service aces, and one block. Sophomore Brady Weissbourd was the bright spot for the Crimson, as the 6’11 sophomore middle hitter recorded eight kills and two blocks.

“Brady Weissbourd was almost unstoppable in the middle when I could get him a good set,” Fitz said. “The middle hitter has always been the strongest part of our team, so our success is going to be linked to expanding Brady in the middle.”

The match was one with a theme, as all three games opened with the two teams trading sideouts. And in each, Springfield found a way to string together a few points to take a big lead.

“At the start of each of the games, we were neck-and-neck, maybe one or two points behind, and then the Springfield players would start ripping jumpers,” Fitz said. “We would let them spring off six or seven points in a row and dug ourselves into a hole that we couldn’t get out of.”

In the opening frame, Harvard evened the score at 3 on a kill by Weissbourd. The Crimson then kept within a few points for a string of plays but, at 15-12, the Pride put together six consecutive points to push its lead to 21-12. A few errors on the Crimson attack pushed the lead to 12 points, which ended up as the final margin of the game.

Harvard couldn’t hang with Springfield for quite as long in the second frame, as the Pride broke open the score at 2-2. Seven Springfield points went unanswered before senior middle hitter Andy Nelson registered one for the Crimson. The lead increased to as much as 10 before becoming final at 30-21.

In the third, kills from Weissbourd, sophomore outside hitter Jeff Nathan, and freshman Gil Weintraub, along with a few errors from the Springfield side, kept Harvard within reach at 10-8. But strong hitting from the Pride pushed the score to its final count of 30-19.

Harvard kicks off a stretch of three home games Friday night at the MAC against NJIT. The team is sure to benefit from the return of senior co-captain and outside hitter Laurence Favrot, who has been out with an injury.

“Laurence is a huge part of our offense and defense,” Fitz said. “We are an entirely different team when he is on the court.”

—Staff writer Rebecca A. Compton can be reached at compton@fas.harvard.edu.