Volleyball Suffers Season-Opening Sweep

It can only go up from here for the Harvard men’s volleyball team (0-2), which lost its first two contests of the season this weekend against Juniata (1-1) and St. Francis (5-1) over the weekend.

The Crimson expects to keep improving over the course of the season, after following up a 3-0 loss to Juniata in the Kennedy Sports and Recreation Center with a 3-1 loss to St. Francis in DeGol Arena. The improvement was palpable, but both games ended in disappointment.

“They’re two of the toughest teams on the schedule,” sophomore Matt Jones said. “It kind of showed us where we are and what we need to work on.”

ST. FRANCIS 3, HARVARD 1

Jones had just recorded his 17th kill of day to give the Crimson a 28-27 lead in the fourth game when St. Francis’s Alex Fortney made an attack error to put Harvard up by two. It looked like the Crimson, down two games to one, was due for a rally.

But the squad was undone by its own errors.

The first of these was a service error—Harvard’s kryptonite the day before against Juniata. Three attack mistakes later, the match was over and the Red Flash was walking victorious.

“We had a chance to push it to the 5th game,” Jones said. “[There were] a couple small errors, mental breakdowns on our side.”

The ending spoiled a game in which the Crimson showed it could compete with a top-15 team.

“I thought we showed moments of brilliance,” co-captain Gil Weintraub said. “As our coach was saying, we know we can play at this level. It’s going to take practice and hard work.”

St. Francis came out strong early, taking the first game 28-22, but Harvard was able to rally, winning the second game 32-30.

“We showed them that they had to take us seriously,” Weintraub said. “They started off really well...we weren’t in the right frame of mind. As the game wore on, we started to figure them out.”

But even in the second game—the Crimson’s lone victory of the weekend—errors pushed it to the brink. After Harvard took a 29-23 lead, the Red Flash won six consecutive points to even the score.

“We let them get a service run,” Jones explained.

This time the Crimson was able to hold on for the victory, but St. Francis apparently learned its lesson, winning the next game, 30-24, before the fourth-game heartbreaker.

JUNIATA 3, HARVARD 0

Sometimes it really is just a matter of getting the ball over the net. The Crimson learned that lesson the hard way as it racked up 21 service errors in its Saturday loss.

“We had the first-match-of-the-year jitters,” Jones said.

Serving woes kept Harvard on the defensive end of things all night, but it was the Eagles’ defense that shined, earning a 9.0-6.5 advantage in blocks.

“Because they outserved us, we were out of the system,” Jones said. “The block on the other side of the net was always set up better. We allowed them to play better defense and get more blocks.”

But even in Saturday’s sweep, the Crimson got better over the course of the match.

After losing the first game, 30-22, it came one point closer in the second (30-23) and drew within one point at the end of the third game before falling, 30-27.

The weekend was far from a success, but the men’s volleyball team can take solace in sustained improvement throughout its pair of contests. Combine that improved play with strong performances from freshmen—Rob Lothman had 33 assists and four kills Saturday while Derek Jansma had nine digs—and the Crimson may even have cause for optimism.

“Everyone stepped up their games,” Weintraub said. “We have a lot to look forward to.”

—Staff writer Christina C. McClintock can be reached at ccmcclin@fas.harvard.edu.