Harvard Has Block Party In Win Over MIT

A full week since its last competition, the Harvard men’s volleyball team defeated neighboring rival Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 3-1 (30-27, 25-30, 30-22, 30-22) in last night’s match at the Malkin Athletic Center.

After a four-day break between games, the Crimson (7-3, 4-3 Hay) struggled to gain mental focus for the first two games of the match.

“Our bodies were rested,” co-captain Dave Fitz said. “At Monday practice, everyone was jumping really high, but practice wasn’t that smooth. Mentally we were out of it a little bit, and I think that carried over tonight.”

The Engineers (21-3, 9-0 NECVA), ranked 10th nationally by the AVCA, entered the match with confidence. MIT proved comparable to Harvard in team kills, knocking out 49 and 52, respectively. But in total blocks, the Engineers trailed far behind, registering only seven, while the Crimson turned out 17. Sophomore Brady Weissbourd, last week’s Hay Division Player of the Week, produced 10 blocks—over half of Harvard’s total for the night. Weissbourd also added 13 kills.

Co-captain Laurence Favrot earned 12 kills, and senior Andy Nelson (nine kills) tallied a percentage of .615—the highest between both teams.

With both Harvard and MIT coming in with hopes of continuing their solid recent play, the local rivalry intensified the competition.

“They play hard. I think they play up when they come to us,” Harvard coach Chris Ridolfi said. “I don’t think either team thinks they’re going to lose.”

The first game was a close one, even after the Crimson surrendered the first several points. After quickly catching up, Harvard kept the score close. Remaining within a few points, the Engineers and the Crimson battled back and forth, though MIT committed far more errors—12 compared to Harvard’s four. By the end, neither team produced their best percentages—MIT hit .105 and the Crimson,.296—but the Crimson pulled ahead to win the game, 30-27.

In the following game, the Crimson’s lack of focus hurt most as it caved to the Engineers, 25-30.

“We had an awful second game,” Ridolfi said. “We had what we felt was a clear offensive advantage with our rotation against what they were putting up for blockers, and we failed to take advantage of that.”

With a negative hitting percentage (-.025), Harvard was unable to reach 30 points before MIT took the game. Quickly giving up the first four points of the game, the Crimson struggled to regain momentum for the first half. After a string of hits and blocks by Nelson and Weissbourd, the Crimson narrowed the gap, only trailing the Engineers by two points, 22-24, but fell in the end after four consecutive errors.

Splitting the first two games helped Harvard realize that it had to step up.

“[The second game] really shocked us in. I’ve never lost to MIT in my past three, now four years here, and it wasn’t going to start tonight,” Fitz said. “Coach told us we better get our act together because we’re not going to lose to MIT.”

The Crimson gained focus and took the next two games to win the match. In the third game, Harvard’s percentage was a match-high of .419, while MIT hit in the negative with a match-low -.036. The game stayed close at first, but after the Crimson broke the 7-7 tie, the Engineers never caught up, as Harvard triumphed, 30-22.

The fourth and final game of the night was yet another close one, but the Crimson remained ahead after gaining 14 points. Effective blocks and kills kept Harvard a few points ahead of MIT. As the Crimson only committed three errors in the final game, it was able to keep the lead and claimed victory over the Engineers, 30-22.

Though Harvard walked away with a win, it will use its upcoming practices to work out a few kinks before entering this weekend’s matches.

“We won, so you can’t be too disappointed, but we didn’t execute as well as we could have,” Fitz said. “We have big matches coming up, so we would have liked to be a little cleaner.”

The Crimson will travel to New Jersey and New York for two important league matches against NJIT and NYU, respectively.