Crimson Downed By Sluggish Start

The match didn’t really begin until the third game, and by that time victory had already slipped out of reach for Harvard.

The Crimson men’s volleyball team (7-8, 3-4 Hay) took on the Trojans of Mount Olive (14-5) at the Malkin Athletic Center Saturday afternoon but lacked the energy to stay with the feisty visitors.

“We just started out really slowly,” senior Jamie Crooks said. “Our starting point was so low that by the time we came back to really play it was too late.”

Harvard lost its second matchup of the year to the Trojans by a score of 3-1 (30-20, 30-27, 25-30, 30-28) and the hosts dropped the first two games without posting much of a challenge at all.

But with its back against the wall the Crimson still found a way to delight the home crowd.

“In the first two games everything we did, passing, hitting, blocking, we were afraid to mess up,” Crooks added. “But in the third game [Coach Barbosa] just told us to relax. We knew we were much better than we had been playing.”

With the Trojans only needing one more game, sophomore setter Gil Weintraub made a statement, giving Harvard its first opening point of the day with an ace.

Even though a series of strong kills from Mount Olive led to a 10-7 Trojan lead, the small group of fans was determined not to let the Crimson’s best opportunity slip away. During the next Mount Olive serve, the crowd rained a chorus of boos down on the visitors, causing a miscue and giving the hosts a chance to fight back.

Sophomore Soren Rosier had a hand in winning three straight points before junior captain Brady Weissbourd posted back-to-back blocks to give Harvard its biggest lead of the night at 18-14. Strong serving by Rosier and Weintraub sealed a Crimson victory, but in the end only served to remind the fans of what could have been a great performance.

The impeccable serving and crisp passing that sparked this sole win were conspicuously absent from the first two frames, a fact that did not escape the players.

“We came out really cold and really quiet,” Weintraub said. “The passing the first two games was really rough. It’s hard to run an offense like that.”

The difference between games was quite clear in the team’s kill percentage, which rose from an abysmal .062 in the opening frame to .200 in the second game and .333 in the third.

Sophomore outside hitter Erik Kuld and Weissbourd led Harvard with 18 and 15 kills respectively as Harvard amassed one more kill than the Trojans. Unfortunately for the hosts, they also logged nine more errors in an inconsistent team effort.

Shaky serving in particular devastated the Crimson early, preventing it from building much-needed momentum. In the second game alone, Harvard players made five service errors. This inability to hold the ball made it difficult for the struggling squad to gain its footing, but as the Crimson players relaxed the offense began to flow.

“Serving just got a lot better. Everyone was more aggressive, more confident and I think it showed in their play,” Weintraub said.

The sophomore led the team with five aces and 42 assists, and the Crimson opened the fourth game hoping to erase its early deficit.

The home team again started promisingly, building a four point lead, 12-8, but Mount Olive’s tenacity wore Harvard down, as the margin dwindled to a tie at 18.

“In the fourth game we let up a little bit,” Weintraub said. “We didn’t realize what was happening fast enough.”

Indeed, in the blink of an eye the Trojans built a 21-18 lead and did not look back. Despite fighting hard to bring the score to 29-28, like much of Harvard’s effort it proved to be too little, too late. Mount Olive’s Noel Garcia, the match leader in kill percentage at .368, ended the evening with an emphatic spike and left the Crimson wondering about its playoff hopes.

Harvard began the weekend in third place in the Hay division in which only the top two teams advance to the postseason. If Harvard hopes to claim one of those spots, it will have to take a lesson from the Trojans in the coming weeks and sustain its late-match energy from start to finish.