Vollyballers Take Third At Ivy League Tourney

The Harvard men's volleyball squad--a club team not supported by the University--pulled off a surprise third-place finish at the Ivy League Championships at Penn Sunday.

Ivy League powerhouses Penn and Princeton duked it out for the title, with the Tigers winning the finals convincingly, 15-1, 15-8.

But the surprise team was the Crimson. Favored to finish no better than fifth against competition that was mostly varsity-level, Harvard made it to the three-team final round with an 8-4 record in the preliminary round-robin.

Although Princeton and Penn handled the Crimson with 2-0 victories in the round-robin, the Harvard spikers made it to the final three with solid two-zip wins over Dartmouth, Cornell, Yale and Columbia.

Hopes for an even higher finish died, though, when Princeton gutted out a 15-13, 15-8 victory in the semis. The red-hot Tigers then demolished the Quakers, who had received a bye, for the title.

"We were pretty happy, since we beat varsity teams from Cornell and Yale, and were with Penn and Princeton," senior co-captain Roger Martin said yesterday. "We really gave Princeton a run for their money."

Senior "hitter" Todd Tanaka stood out for the Crimson, earning a berth on the All-Ivy first team for his superlative play. Chris Peterson and Terry Morita made it to the second team.

The club plays a home match versus Northeastern at 7 p.m. Friday at the IAB. The spikers will also host New Hampshire (April 14) and Boston University (April 20).