Huskies Roll Past Flagging Crimson

The wear and tear of the four-match weekend took its toll on the Harvard women’s volleyball squad, as the squad fell to Northeastern, 3-1 (30-28, 29-31, 24-30, 19-30), yesterday evening at Lavietes Pavilion.

“The mental stamina through four matches for the weekend is tough,” head coach Jennifer Weiss said. “We started out awesome, but they pushed at us, and we didn’t respond.”

Hot off Saturday’s victories against Hartford (6-9) and NJIT (4-14) in the Crimson Classic, Harvard (5-7) was looking to improve its record to .500, but the Huskies defense proved too much for the Crimson hitters.

Despite getting out-blocked 8-4, however, Harvard managed 75 digs to Northeastern’s 71 digs.

Senior Laura Mahon led the Crimson offense, recording a double-double with 22 kills and 12 digs. Classmate Mimi Hanley supplied an additional 12 kills on 29 attempts. Sophomore Lily Durwood and junior Laura Mays shared setting duties, registering 29 and 18 assists, respectively.

“[Mahon is] really smart with the ball,” Weiss said. “She’s not as big as that block was, but she knows how to use it and everything else.”

Sophomore libero Katherine Kocurek anchored the defense with 17 digs, with junior Kathryn McKinley and sophomore Chelsea Ono Horn notching 16 and 12 digs, respectively.

“We came out really well collectively as a team,” Mahon said. “We played well, especially in the first game. The one thing that was the cause of that loss [was] just the strings of points that go by.”

Harvard jumped off to an early lead in the first frame, scoring four unanswered points behind Durwood’s serve. But a string of Huskies rallies allowed Northeastern (8-10) to tie the game at 21.

After countless lead changes and a timeout from each team, Durwood and captain Suzie Trimble connected to take a 29-28 lead.

The Crimson completed the victory on an attack error from the Huskies’ Lauren DeTurk.

Game two started out much the same as the first, as Harvard went on a 5-0 run to take a 9-4 lead. But again, Northeastern slowly chipped away at the lead, drawing the score even at 27.

The Crimson took a 29-28 lead on a McKinley kill, but the Huskies’ Jillian Robinson answered to make it even at 29. A point later, a service ace from Northeastern’s Britney Brown secured the 31-29 Huskies victory.

Northeastern stormed out of the gate in the third frame, taking a 7-0 lead behind Kira Batura’s serve. Harvard chipped away at the lead, but it proved too little too late as the Crimson came up short, 30-24.

The final game exhibited back-and-forth play at the start, but the Huskies again managed to put multiple rallies together to seal the 30-19 victory.

“It comes down to when we lose the point, we need to get it right back,” Mahon said. “The strings of points are exactly what we need to work on.”

The Crimson will have plenty of time this week to work out the kinks with four days to fine tune their game and get some rest before diving into the heart of the Ivy League schedule with a rematch against Dartmouth in Hanover, N.H.

—Staff writer Dixon McPhillips can be reached at fmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.