Harvard Women’s Volleyball Sweeps Dartmouth, Starts Ivy Play Strong

The Harvard women’s volleyball team (2-7, 1-0 Ivy), battle-tested from a tough non-conference slate, swept its opening Ivy League match at Dartmouth (3-8, 0-1).

“The pre-season definitely prepared us for the competition that we would face in Ivys,” said junior outside Ali Farquhar.

The Crimson applied its lessons from the out of conference games to play its best game of the season and win its sixth straight set. The victory continued Harvard’s superiority over the Big Green as the Crimson have not lost to Dartmouth since 2019.

Harvard 3, Dartmouth 0

Harvard jumped out to an early lead by forcing attack errors. The Crimson dominated at the net for all three sets and kept Dartmouth out of system. Some sloppy play by Harvard allowed the Big Green to keep in touch.

Two kills and two service aces made a 4-0 run for Dartmouth to bring the set to 13-12 Harvard. The Crimson responded with a 5-0 run powered by two of Harvard’s 13 blocks on the day.

The Big Green cut the lead down to one on two more occasions, but a combo block by sophomore middle Riley Resmer and senior outside Brynne Faltinsky brought Harvard to 24 points. A service error by Dartmouth ended the closest set of the match anticlimatically as the Crimson won 25-22.

Harvard claimed another commanding lead to begin the second set. The Crimson continued to own every aspect of the match. A stifling net defense was complemented by a mixed attack by all of Harvard’s outsides. The Big Green defense struggled to respond as the Crimson shared the wealth of kills amongst its outsides.

Harvard’s lead grew to eight before a Dartmouth run cut it back to four. But the Big Green outsides appeared to see ghosts even when the stout Crimson defense did crack at the net, powering a Harvard run with their errors. The Crimson lead peaked at 12 before Harvard won the set 25-17.

It is easy for teams to take their foot off the gas up 2-0, but Harvard continued to battle as if the team had something to prove in the third set. The team refers to this focus as their “red-zone” mentality according to Farquhar.

Farquhar characterized the mentality as “relentless focus and all out effort to the very last point.”

The Crimson’s effort stayed high throughout the set as Harvard had three runs of four or more points in the set and opened with a 16-4 lead before Dartmouth showed any resistance.

Harvard closed the set and match on a 5-0 run behind strong serves from freshman outside Bridget Egan. Egan led the Crimson with four service aces on the day and symbolized a rebirth for a Harvard team that struggled mightily from the service line a year ago. The run ended the set 25-11 and the match 3-0 to close the Crimson’s best game of the season.

“I think the all out effort of the team was what made us successful,” said Farquhar. “We were able to play our game and let our offense and defense do their thing.”

The Crimson’s 13-3 advantage in blocks characterized Harvard’s dominance over the flow of the game. Harvard will look to continue to build on its momentum and grow one step closer to a return to the Ivy League tournament at Cornell (6-5, 1-0 Ivy) on Friday, Oct. 3 at 7:00 p.m.

—Staff writer Reed M. Trimble can be reached at reed.trimble@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @ReedTrimble1.