Crimson Drops Tight Game In Loss

The Harvard women’s volleyball team started off its season on the losing end of a shutout in the season opener against Sacred Heart University, dropping three straight games to the Pioneers (4-3) in the Pitt Center on Sunday.

Although the Crimson (0-1) failed to capture a set, the women’s squad kept pace with its opponent throughout most of its first game.

“At end of day they were more consistent then we were,” junior co-captain Katherine Kocurek said. “We had a lot of fight and a bit more diversity than [the Pioneers]. We had our highs and lows.”

Kocurek, who contributed 14 digs, supplied one of several strong Crimson performances.

The team’s other co-captain, junior Lily Durwood, made 26 assists.

Junior Alissa Flesher hit .545—her second best performance—while sophomore Mikaelle Comrie racked up a career-high eight kills.

Overall, the women’s squad hit for .125 and put up seven blocks compared to Sacred Heart’s .140 hitting percentage and six blocks.

Throughout the first set, the Harvard and Sacred Heart squads jostled for the lead, tying several times. Two forced Pioneer errors followed by one of Comrie’s kills let the Crimson eventually tie the game at 24-24. Taking advantage of an ensuing Harvard fault, Sacred Heart’s Mallie Herthington aced the serve and sealed the first set in favor of the Pioneers, 26-24.

“We were playing around with a lot of different lineups, trying to find a rhythm,” Kocurek said.

The second and third games featured similar back-and-forth action that culminated with Pioneer victories. The Crimson’s focus slipped away towards the end of the second set when Sacred Heart scored five straight points and increased its lead to 24-19. The Pioneer’s streak was then capped off by a set-ending kill.

However, when a similar situation arose during the final minutes of the third set, Harvard appeared to rally behind a block from seniors Laura Mays and Kathryn McKinley that brought the Crimson to within two points of its opponent at 24-22. Their rally was cut short, though, by a Herthington kill, which ended the set at 25-22.

“In practice we’re going to focus on being aggressive and worrying less about the small stuff,” Kocurek said. “Bigger picture stuff—more competitive drills as opposed technicalities.”

The women’s squad continues its season at home this weekend in Lavietes Pavilion, where it will face off against American University in the first round of the Harvard Invitational on Friday.

—Staff writer Emmett A. Kistler can be reached at ekistler@fas.harvard.edu.