Volleyball Drops Seventh Straight

The Harvard women’s volleyball team traveled to Hanover, N.H., last Friday to face Dartmouth in its first Ivy League match of the season. Though the schedule may have shifted into a new phase, the result was all too familiar for the Crimson. Harvard (2-10, 0-1 Ivy) lost to the Big Green (9-2, 1-0) at Leede Arena in four sets, 25-17, 20-25, 25-16, 25-11, for its seventh straight defeat.

“Going into any Ivy [match], there’s always that extra weight on the game,” junior Christine Wu said. “I think that we just didn’t really show up...Dartmouth played very aggressively, and I don’t think we came out and matched that competitive edge.”

In the first set, the Big Green opened with an early 9-3 lead, forcing the Crimson to burn a timeout. But out of the break, Harvard could not recover. Dartmouth kept up the offensive pressure with kills from junior Madeline Baird and classmate Annie Villanueva to push the score to 13-7. From that point, the Big Green did not falter, winning the opening set, 25-17, on a kill by senior Kelsey Johnson.

“Starting out right away we’ll let the other team get a string of points, and it goes by quickly because we’ll make a few mistakes here and there,” said Wu of the early deficit to open the set. “It’s just a matter of holding on to our serve and chipping away.”

“Once you get behind, it’s mentally a lot tougher to come back,” said junior co-captain Anne Carroll Ingersoll.

The second frame offered the Crimson some hope. The two teams traded leads until the middle of the set when a Dartmouth attack error gave Harvard an 11-10 advantage. The Crimson held the lead, 21-19, when a kill from the Big Green freshman Meghan Cooney cut the margin down to one. But sophomore Taylor Docter responded with two straight kills, providing Harvard a little insurance as it went on to claim the set, 25-20. The win was the first time the Crimson had taken a set in its last 17 tries.

“In the second set, things clicked, our team gelled a bit,” Wu said. “Finally getting a win after such a long time felt great, and hopefully [it] clicks in everyone’s heart that this is what it takes to win.”

“These shining moments show the potential of what we can be,” Wu added.

But Harvard was unable to sustain its momentum. In the third set, Dartmouth came out on fire, quickly building a five-point lead. The Crimson battled back and whittled the lead down to two at 18-16, but with Big Green junior Kendall Houston serving, Dartmouth reeled off five straight points. The Big Green did not allow Harvard another score as it went on to take the set, 25-16.

The final frame played out much like the third, as Dartmouth built an early lead and coasted to a 25-11 win with sophomore Lexie Campbell’s ace icing the match.

On the night, Ingersoll filled out the stat sheet with a team-leading nine kills and four blocks. Freshman Teresa Skelly chipped in seven kills and four blocks, and senior Mikaelle Comrie tallied seven kills as well. As a team, the Crimson was held to just a .097 hitting percentage and committed 23 attack errors.

“Our hitters need to focus a little more on executing and going up every time to hit the ball with a purpose,” Ingersoll said. “We play it safe too much.”

“I know we have so much talent, but now it’s a matter of collecting it all together and getting that on court for an entire match,” Wu said.

Harvard will have a shot at retribution later this week when the Big Green travels to the Malkin Athletic Center for a rematch of last weekend’s contest.

“We get to play [Dartmouth] again on Friday,” Ingersoll said. “I’m really hoping this week that we can take care of the things we need to take care of in order to make our home Ivy opener different.”

—Staff writer Timothy J. Walsh can be reached at twalsh@fas.harvard.edu.