Crimson Loss Earns Yale Ivy League Crown

As Yale freshman Mollie Rogers’ perfectly-placed kill landed in the middle of four Harvard (11-12, 4-9 Ivy) players to seal a convincing 3-0 victory for the Bulldogs (18-5, 12-1), Yale players began celebrating not just a victory over a conference rival but an Ivy League championship.

The Bulldogs were presented with their second consecutive Ivy League trophy—and third in four years—as Crimson players looked on.

The first set proved to be the most competitive, making the game seem like it would be a back-and-forth affair. After exchanging scoring runs, the two teams found themselves knotted at 11 apiece. The set was hotly contested, and the teams tied five more times throughout the frame. But Rogers’ strong finishes and a few Crimson errors allowed the Bulldogs to close the set out, 25-20.

In a day characterized by missed chances, Harvard lost the last point of the set on a service error.

“You just can’t make that one mistake in such a game of momentum,” Harvard coach Jennifer Weiss said.

Yale pulled away after the first set and never gave the Crimson a chance to recover. The Bulldogs led by as many as nine in the second set and closed out the frame, 25-17. Yale then finished the third set with a 12-point advantage, 25-13.

Harvard was unable to prevent sustained Bulldog scoring runs, as the visitors racked up a .302 hitting average. Yale demonstrated its ability to put up points consistently when it scored eight straight points in the first set, establishing its dominance early on.

Harvard’s defense was at times overwhelmed by Yale’s powerful hitters, who were very successful around the net. Whenever the Crimson was poised to make a run, the Bulldogs came up with a kill in response.

“We’re proud of how we played tonight,” co-captain Christine Wu said. “We fought with them—it just wasn’t enough.”

The Crimson clearly had trouble keeping up, and it was mainly due to missed kill opportunities.

Junior outside hitter Taylor Doctor led the team with 10 kills for the Crimson, doing so on 39 total chances. Sophomore middle blocker Teresa Skelly and rookie outside hitter Kristen Casey were close behind with seven kills apiece.

Converting kill chances was an area that Harvard struggled with throughout the match. It had a .121 kill percentage compared with the Bulldog’s .302 kill rate.

This consistency from the Yale outside hitters was a deciding factor in the outcome. Yale killed 46 total balls, and only had 11 errors. Harvard, on the other hand, put away only 32 balls and recorded 17 errors.

Rogers led the Bulldogs with 17 kills, and Yale freshman Allie Frappier contributed 11 kills to the championship-winning effort.

But there were some bright spots for the Crimson. Casey was relentless in her pursuit of the ball, on her way to recording seven kills and 13 digs. Wu also contributed on the defensive end, registering 16 digs, bringing her total to 499 in 2011—a new season-high for digs.

“We passed very well, and our defense was very good,” Weiss said. “We had a lot of high percentages—they just beat us.”

Yale also won the first matchup earlier in the season, again blanking Harvard, 3-0. But Wu noted that Harvard had a different attitude and game plan going into this encounter.

“Looking back on our first game, we knew we were a different team,” she said. “We’ve improved so much throughout the season. We had a different line up and a great new system … we’re going to go into our game with Brown [Saturday] with the same momentum, the same fire.”

Weiss echoed Wu’s attitude.

“I think we have to go on to the next play and take it one point at a time,” Weiss said. “So if you make a mistake on one play, you go on to the next point.”