Women’s Volleyball Splits Weekend, Remains in Ivy Mix

Birthdays, ironically enough, can turn out to be one of the more depressing days of the year. Birthday fun can never quite seem to live up to over-heightened expectations, leading to the so-called birthday blues.

Luckily, that wasn’t the case Saturday night, as Harvard (6-14, 3-5 Ivy) earned a convincing victory over Brown (7-13, 1-7) on the day of co-captain Miyoko Pettit’s birthday. The Crimson went 1-1 in its pair of home matches, losing to Yale (12-7, 6-2) on Friday night.

“We took away some things that we want to work on,” Crimson coach Jennifer Weiss said. “We know what we need to work on to be better and to capitalize on our strengths. For example, we know we are going to work on our defense.”

“Especially scouting out opponents,” Weiss added. “We’re going to see them both again, so we are going to scout them both again to see what their tendencies are [and] to try and stop their strong hitters.”

HARVARD 3, BROWN 1

In the final match of the weekend, Harvard put forth a strong showing at the MAC, downing the Bears in four sets, 26-24, 22-25, 25-17, 25-13. Sticking to its offensive system and power hitting were keys to the Crimson’s success.

“We knew that when Brown came in after they beat Dartmouth that they could be scrappy and that they would serve well,” Weiss said. “The goal was to stay in our system, and really attack them quick, and you saw that tonight we were overpowering them. They are really good defensively, but we kind of broke down their defenses.”

The Crimson stormed out to a 19-11 lead to open the first frame, but Brown would respond, going on a 13-5 run, tying the game at 24 apiece. Weiss called two key timeouts during that span, in an effort to stifle the Bears’ comeback attempt.

“Sometimes when you play against Brown, and they take time serving, and they start controlling the momentum—it’s a momentum game—you have to continue to go at them and run what we run,” Weiss said. “The [second] timeout we really just had to take a little stress off of ourselves and just run what we know how to do.”

The timeouts worked, as Harvard was able to secure the next two points to close out the game.

Junior co-captain Anne Ingersoll led all competitors with 16 kills, six blocks, and four digs. Senior Mikaelle Comrie and junior Sandra Lynne Fryhofer added 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Junior libero Christine Wu added a game-high 23 digs.

Brown carried its momentum from a strong first frame run into the second frame, winning at 25-22.

“We all recognized [the second game] was just sort of a hiccup in terms of mental focus,” Pettit said. “We just knew we had to come out stronger in the beginning and every little point from there on.”

With renewed focus, Harvard was resurgent in the final two games, racing out to a 15-9 lead in the third. Sophomore reserve Jennifer Martin provided a spark off the bench, serving out the third frame to win at 25-17.

“Jenny did a wonderful job,” Weiss said. “She has been working hard every day in practice, and that’s what she does—she serves like that every day in practice. [Tonight] she had an opportunity and she did awesome.”

The Crimson cruised through the fourth game, jumping out to a 10-4 lead, eventually winning at 25-13.

YALE 3, HARVARD 1

In the opening match of the weekend, a Harvard comeback attempt fell short, as the squad lost to Yale, 25-23, 20-25, 25-22, 25-12.

After exchanging points to start out the first frame, the Crimson was tied with the Bulldogs at 15 all and again at 19 apiece. But Yale’s strong hitting proved to be too much, and the visitors won the first frame.

Harvard would come back, using a 5-1 run to break open a close second frame, going ahead 20-13. A well-timed kill from freshman Teresa Skelly earned the Crimson the second.

The third game saw the teams tied at 15 all, but the Bulldogs used a 4-0 run to pull away and capture a 2-1 overall lead.

Unforced errors and lack of focus proved to be problems for Harvard in the fourth game, as the Crimson could not keep pace in a 25-12 setback.

“We battled in the first 3 games,” Weiss said. “We did a nice job, and I think that Yale’s defense kind of kicked up a bit, and we just didn’t make that last game. We had a lot of unforced errors.”

“The first three games I think we played really well,” Petitt said. “The first and third set we just had trouble closing it out, the second set was, very, very good volleyball, but the fourth set, again, we just lost focus, and [we] recognize that we have to come out and start every set strong.”

—Staff writer David E. Lopez-Lengowski can be reached at delopez@college.harvard.edu.