Men's Volleyball Drops Five-Game Thriller

A key injury didn’t derail the Harvard men’s volleyball comeback attempt. But in the end, the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) proved more effective, dispatching the Crimson, 3-2 (28-30, 30-26, 30-24, 28-30, 15-11), Friday night at the Malkin Athletic Center.

Playing in its home opener, Harvard (0-2, 0-2 Hay) came out on fire but couldn’t maintain its rhythm through the match.

In fact, when co-captain and starting setter Dave Fitz had to leave the game with a minor ankle injury before the start of the fourth frame, it seemed that the Crimson had little chance of challenging the Highlanders (3-0, 3-0).

But Harvard’s lone rookie, Gil Weintraub—who started the game on the right side and finsihed with 17 kills, 19 assists, and eight digs—stepped in at setter and orchestrated the offense with little difficulty, leading the Crimson to a game four win.

“That’s why we brought him here,” Harvard coach Christopher Ridolfi said. “He’s a really well-rounded player who can do a lot of things for us.”

For a while, NJIT controlled the play in the fourth frame. Though the Crimson took the first three points of the game, the Highlanders strung together a series of kills to open up a 16-11 gap.

After a timeout, Harvard turned the tables on NJIT, going on a 12-4 run to establish a 23-20 lead. The Crimson escaped tie scores at 24 and 28 and captured a 30-28 victory on a kill by sophomore middle hitter Brady Weissbourd (16 kills, six blocks).

“Part of it was going back to what we had in the first game—bringing it back to the middle of the court, firing ourselves up, yelling after every point,” co-captain Laurence Favrot said.

Nonetheless, Harvard never really stood a chance in the fifth frame.

The Crimson took the first point of the game but never led again, as the Highlanders opened up a margin of five points en route to a 15-11 win to close out the match.

“We made a couple of key errors,” Favrot said. “We sort of changed the way we played and got a little tentative.”

Harvard’s best offensive performance came in game one, as the Crimson posted 17 kills on .500 hitting. NJIT kept the score close and even led for much of the frame despite posting attacking at a meager rate of .086.

Still, Harvard managed to escape with a 30-28 victory on kills by Weintraub and Favrot and a game-finishing block by Fitz.

“We practiced well, had two good practices—corrected some things we did poorly,” Ridolfi said. “We’re much better than we played at Springfield [last week].”

NJIT found its groove in the second and third frames, establishing its block against the Crimson’s hitters while turning up its own offense.

Hitting .355 and .483 in games two and three, respectively, the Highlanders managed to pull away to take a 2-1 match lead.

But what hurt Harvard the most was its inaccurate serving, as the Crimson recorded 23 service errors while notching just four aces.

“It’s just a matter of picking our spots,” Ridolfi said. “When you can go back there and bang the ball and when you have to be smart with the ball. We haven’t quite gotten there yet.”

After having lost its first two matches in Hay Division play, Harvard will return to action on Wednesday against non-conference foe Endicott. The Crimson will then hit the road to face league rival Sacred Heart on Friday.

NOTE: Harvard was scheduled to play Puerto Rico-Mayaguez on Saturday, but the match was declared a no contest when Puerto Rico did not show up. According to NCAA rules, the match does not figure into the official win-loss record of either team.

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