Killer P’s Hand Volleyball a Pair of Ivy League Losses

On Friday night in their game against Princeton, the ladies of Harvard women’s volleyball certainly learned how to put it all on the line.

The Crimson (5-13, 2-4 Ivy) fell to the Tigers (10-6, 5-0) in overtime of the fifth set Friday night, pushing through multiple injuries to its starting lineup only to be swept in three games against Penn (8-9, 4-1) the following afternoon.

“This weekend is kind of a mixed bag for our team,” co-captain Miyoko Pettit said. “Against Princeton...we played possibly the best volleyball we’ve played this season. It was a heartbreaking loss, but we could see how much potential we had. And then in our match against Penn, we just didn’t show up in the same way.”

PENN 3, HARVARD 0

Coming off a close loss to the Ivy League leaders in New Jersey, Harvard predicted its Saturday night matchup against the Quakers in Philadelphia to be more within reach. But they were soon proven wrong after the Crimson dropped three straight sets to Penn, 25-9, 25-12, 25-20.

“They had a really quick offense,” senior Mikaelle Comrie said. “We couldn’t get a good block up, and because of it, our passing system really broke down. We didn’t really have the opportunity to run a lot of plays.”

Harvard managed to tie it at 1-1 in the first set, but it was the closest the Crimson got to a lead, as Penn did not trail the entire night.

The Quakers decided the fate of the first two sets early on, powering to a 9-2 advantage in the opening game and then an errorless 13-0 lead in the second.

The closing stanza proved to be the tightest matchup, despite Penn’s 11-3 lead to start.

According to Pettit, Harvard went into the third set with the attitude that it had been lacking, but it was too little, too late. The Crimson fell to the Quakers, 25-20, the tightest finish of the series.

PRINCETON 3, HARVARD 2

Harvard’s two-game Ivy League winning streak, encompassing victories over Cornell and Columbia, was brought to an end on Friday after a close match against Princeton was decided in the final two points of the fifth set.

“Our system was in place and our passing and defense were really good,” Pettit said. “Our middles had amazing games, so many blocks, which was huge. Everyone was playing really well compared to [Saturday].”

The Crimson came out with the lead in the first three sets, pulling ahead, 2-1. Both teams tied the first set at 19 and then again at 24, but the final two points went to Harvard, along with the set.

In the second stanza, the Tigers began with the lead and maintained it throughout, easily capturing the win, 25-16. It appeared, at the beginning the third, that Princeton would pull off a similar victory. But after the Tigers extended their lead to 19-13, the Crimson rallied for the win, tying up the set at 22 and 24 points.

Once again, Harvard pulled out a victory in the final two points of the set with help from one of junior co-captain Anne Carroll Ingersoll’s 16 kills and a second one by sophomore Taylor Docter to capture the set.

The fourth set followed a similar pattern to the second, in which the Tigers captured the lead early and maintained it throughout. Princeton took the game, 25-21.

The deciding game was point-for-point to start until the Tigers took a 14-11 lead. With service from junior Sandra Lynne Fryhofer, the Crimson successfully knotted up the score at 14.

Despite its underdog performance, Harvard gave away the final two points on an error and a kill, culminating in its first overtime loss of the weekend.

Although its record for the weekend may have been disappointing for the Crimson, Comrie views it as a possible opportunity to improve.

“We’re really going to have to come together as a team this week,” Comrie said. “We’re going have to work more on executing each part of our game together.”

“[This weekend] was a good thing moving into the season because it’s really going to require us to work on each aspect of the game in this next week of preparation,” she added.