Women's Volleyball Splits Weekend Slate

After the Harvard women’s volleyball team came up empty handed last weekend in its second wave of Ivy League play, the squad hit the road once again hoping to improve its conference record.

The Crimson (4-10, 2-3 Ivy) managed to pick up one win in its return to Cambridge, splitting its two Columbus Day weekend matches by beating Brown (4-11, 2-3) on Friday afternoon before losing to Yale (11-3, 4-1) the following evening.

“I’m proud of the way we are growing as a team,” co-captain Corie Bain said. “I think that this weekend was kind of a solidifying experience for us....I’m starting to see the young girls learn what the Ivy League is all about.”

HARVARD 3, BROWN 1

Fueled by two runs book-ending the game, Brown thumped Harvard in a lopsided 25-10 first set. The Bears, recording a match-high .269 hitting percentage in the opening set, received major contributions from freshman outside hitter Makena Ehlert, who tallied nine points behind her serve in the first set alone.

The Crimson, however, would not capitulate another set for the rest of the contest, rattling off three consecutive games en route to victory.

“We did not show up ready to play...[but] we had the chance to turn it around,” Bain said. “It was nice to know that even if we start off weak, we can come back strong and win the game.”

Friday night’s win marks the fourth straight match between the two Ivy League foes ending in Harvard’s favor.

After a close 25-23 second frame followed by a more one-sided 25-15 third set, Harvard led Brown 23-20 in the fourth set when Bears coach Diane Short called a timeout in an effort to slow momentum and refocus her team. This proved to be an effective strategy, as the timeout iced the serve of Harvard sophomore middle blocker Jocelyn Meyer; two Brown kills then tied the set at 23.

Just when the outcome of the set looked to be in question, the Crimson’s Bain put down a kill and subsequently served the final point before assisting sophomore middle blocker Christina Cornelius on the match-ending kill.

“We’ve always said in Harvard volleyball that...anyone can take that fifth game,” Bain remarked. “I really pushed to have us win in four [games].”

While clawing its way back from the anomalous first set, Harvard benefitted greatly from freshman outside hitter Grace Roberts Burbank’s game-high 14 kills. Likewise, the setting duo of Bain and freshman Erin McCarthy recorded a combined 43 assists and 21 digs. Bain also had 11 kills on the afternoon.

Freshman middle blocker Maclaine Fields played an efficient match, as she recorded nine kills without a single hitting error, which led to a team-high .450 hitting percentage.

On the other side of the net, Brown junior libero Melissa Cairo was all over the floor, digging 23 balls. In the front row, junior outside hitter Casey Tierney was the only Bear in double figures for kills, tallying 11.

YALE 3, HARVARD 1

Following three tight sets, Yale jumped out to an early lead in the fourth set, riding sophomore libero Kate Swanson’s serve until Harvard was forced to take a timeout. The Bulldogs’ lead climbed to as high as six points before the Crimson started shaving the deficit; the lead shrunk to five, four, three, then two points as the score crept closer to 25. Eventually, Harvard tied the game and even took the lead at 23-22.

After a block and a few kills, the Crimson found itself on the cusp of sending the match to a winner-take-all set. But suddenly the tides turned, and a side-out by Yale tied the game, at which point the Bulldogs rattled off two more points and seized victory.

“That was one of the first experiences that the team has had in a super tight game with such an emotionally established rival,” Bain acknowledged. “When we are up 27-26, we need to finish….We were making a lot of unforced errors.”

For the Crimson squad, Saturday’s match at Yale saw some of the same patterns from the Brown face-off the night before: the freshman and senior setting tandem of McCarthy and Bain put up impressive numbers in the back row once again, ending with a combined 47 assists and 20 digs. Burbank led with a match-high 16 kills and finished with 30 on the weekend, the most among her teammates. Meyer also pitched in with eight kills and a .467 hitting percentage.

For the Bulldogs, three players recorded double-digit kill totals—each with 11—and of particular note among them was freshman outside hitter Tristin Kott, who managed to do so without recording a single hitting error. Kott converted .688 of the sets she received into kills.

Whereas Harvard ran its offense with two setters, Yale relied solely on freshman Franny Arnautou to dish its sets. Arnautou finished with 43 assists on the night, topping her average assists per set output by three.

Harvard’s 35 hitting errors for the match—compared to Yale’s 15—depict the most telling statistic from the Crimson’s defeat at the hands of the Bulldogs. These giveaway points manifested themselves most clearly in the discrepancy between hitting percentages, where Yale outmatched Harvard .268 to .131.

Even while the sets ended in relatively close fashion, the Bulldogs’ front row played a markedly more efficient match than the Crimson’s, recording at least twice as many kills as errors in each set. The Crimson managed this feat only once, in the second game, which it won.

“[Minimizing unforced errors] is an easy way to avoid losing those super important points,” Bain said, “so I think we know what we need to focus on when we get into tight situations like that”

Due in large part to these errors at the net, Saturday marks only the second time all season that Harvard has conceded a match while recording more kills than its opponent.

Yale improved its untarnished home record to 5-0 with the closely contested win over Harvard on Saturday night.