Harvard Sinks Gulls In Season’s First Win

Sometimes it just takes a little time to warm up.

After a slow start to the match, the Harvard men’s volleyball team hit a groove and coasted to a 3-0 (34-32, 30-15, 30-17) sweep of non-conference foe Endicott (5-4) for its first victory of the season last night at the Malkin Athletic Center.

The Crimson’s middle hitters led the charge, as sophomore Brady Weissbourd and senior Andy Nelson combined for 22 kills and four blocks.

“Look at them—they’re beasts,” said junior outside hitter Jordan Weitzen. “We always know they’ll come through. Our game plan is focused around the middle, and that’s why.”

Still slightly hampered by an ankle injury he suffered last Friday, co-captain and setter Dave Fitz sat out the opening frame.

But after Harvard (1-2) barely escaped with a game one victory, the senior came in to get his team back on track.

“He was ready to go at the beginning of the match, but we held him,” Crimson coach Christopher Ridolfi said. “But he said, ‘I want to go on the court, and I want to clean this up.’ So I put him on in the second game, and he certainly cleaned it up for us.”

With Fitz setting, Harvard exploded offensively in the second frame, posting a hitting percentage of .714.

The Crimson made its run early in the game. After a Harvard service error evened the score at 5, a series of blocks and kills by the duo of Weissbourd and Weitzen propelled the Crimson to a 7-1 streak.

Harvard kept increasing the gap as the game progressed. At one point during the frame, the Crimson tallied seven straight points before a kill by the Gulls ended the streak.

Harvard finished the frame on a 6-0 run, capped by a Weitzen kill, to win, 30-15.

“Everything was going right, actually,” Ridolfi said. “We passed the ball, we set the ball, we attacked the ball.”

Although Endicott’s defense recovered in game three, its offense fared poorly. The Gulls posted more errors (nine) than kills (five), failing to challenge the Crimson block.

Harvard’s attack cooled off in the third frame but continued to be effective, firing at a .314 hitting percentage. The Crimson went on an 8-0 run to open up a 16-7 lead and coasted to a 30-17 finish, with Nelson registering the final two kills.

“We’ve been drilling hitting for a while—places to put the ball, keeping the ball in play,” Weitzen said. “It starts with the pass, and our passing was great.”

The only low point of the game for Harvard came when Fitz was issued a yellow card for talking back to the referee. Fitz seemed perturbed after freshman Gil Weintraub was called for a lift, even though he appeared to hit the ball legally.

But the co-captain laughed it off, leaving the court a few points later to rest his ankle after a successful night.

“We needed his leadership today,” Ridolfi said. “Fitz did a great job of making his point that, as senior captain, he expects more out of his teammates, and we got better after he went on.”

The opening frame was close throughout. Neither team led by more than two points until Endicott set up a game point at 29-26.

But the Crimson rallied to tie the score at 29, taking the following three points on an ace by Weissbourd and kills by Nelson and co-captain Laurence Favrot.

The teams battled back and forth, but Harvard finally converted on its third match point, taking the frame, 34-32.

“We had rough start in the first game,” Weitzen said. “But after Dave and I came on in the second game, we put things together for the win.”

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