Men's Volleyball Loses Three Matches

It was another down weekend for the Harvard men's volleyball team, as the Crimson lost three matches by 3-0 scores.

Harvard (3-8, 0-2 Eastern Conference) faced off against Vassar and then Juniata at the Vassar Tournament on Saturday. In the first match, Vassar edged out a 15-8, 15-9, 16-14 victory, while traditional powerhouse Juniata was victorious by a 15-3, 15-12, 15-10 score.

Finally, Sunday saw the Crimson fall in three consecutive 15-3 sets to the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers, a team that makes regular appearances in the NCAA Tournament.

The story of the weekend for Harvard was not as much the results--except against Vassar, Harvard victories would have been upsets--but the Crimson's search for some consistency. Harvard has lost its last eight matches, only winning a total of five sets in that streak.

Since the cause of many of those losses was erratic passing, Harvard coach Ihsan Gurdal moved sophomore setter Evan Beachy to the opposite position (left-side hitter) and moved co-captain Abbas Hyderi--usually a passing specialist--in control of the second hit. Hyderi, though shorter than Beachy, is quick enough to run down errant serve receives and set up the spikers.

Or, that's what the plan was.

"[We've moved] from a taller team to a more skilled team," Hyderi said. "It somewhat worked against Vassar."

Instituting any new offense requires some adjustments. It's not as bad as it could be--the names on the lineup are the same, so the chemistry is still there--but it's not all rosy.

Because of Hyderi's smaller size, it takes longer for any given set to get to the outside. Therefore, the Crimson are going with more low, timing-oriented spikes than usual.

Of course, it also helps to have hitters, and that is a position in which Harvard is not very deep. Co-captain Dave Cho has not seen action for most of the year because of reconstructive surgery on his wrist and a sprained ankle, while sophomore Dave Olson's strained quadriceps sustained in late January against Dartmouth still has not healed.

It is because of Olson's injury that Gurdal decided to rotate positions. Olson normally plays the position that Beachy has moved to now, and if he was healthy Harvard would immediately go back to its original order.

However, if the Crimson ever hopes to win again this season it had better start to pass, as not even Hyderi can catch up to every shanked serve receive.

Last weekend, that did not happen. Especially against powerful jump servers, the Crimson had its troubles.

This trouble showed itself against Rutgers, whose roster includes the No. 3 server in the nation.

"Passing is definitely our biggest weakness," Hyderi said. Harvard  0 Vassar  3

Harvard  0 Juniata  3

Harvard  0 Rutgers  3

Harvard  0 Juniata  3

Harvard  0 Rutgers  3

Harvard  0 Rutgers  3