M. Volleyball Wins Eighth Straight

The good times kept rolling for the men’s volleyball team last night at the Malkin Athletic Center, as Harvard blew past EIVA conference opponent New Haven in three straight games (30-22, 30-21, 30-26) behind solid defense and a punishing offensive attack.

The victory made it eight straight for the red-hot Crimson (8-3, 4-0 Sweeney), which seems to build momentum with every win since it dropped its first three matches of the season.

“At the beginning of the year, losing three, I think we were kind of doubting ourselves a little bit,” said junior middle hitter John Freese. “But since then, we’ve gotten a lot more confident.”

The Harvard offensive effort was spearheaded by junior middle hitter Seamus McKiernan, who decimated the Chargers (3-10, 1-2 Hay) with 19 kills. McKiernan capitalized on his significant height advantage, using his 6’6” frame to launch the ball past the helpless New Haven blockers.

“We’re just going to ride Seamus all the way,” sophomore setter Dave Fitz said. “He jumps so high and hits the ball so hard. He’s great to have out there—it makes my job easier.”

After briefly trailing 0-2 to start the first frame, the Crimson soon gained control, winning four straight points. While the Chargers would pull even with Harvard at 12, they would never regain the lead, as the Crimson coasted to a 30-22 win.

Harvard took this momentum into the second game, jumping out to an early 8-3 lead. New Haven would make some runs of its own—narrowing the margin to as little as two points—but a 10-3 streak by the Crimson would set them up for an easy 30-21 victory.

While the Chargers hovered relatively close in the first two frames, Harvard head coach Chris Ridolfi felt the 2-0 lead was secure enough to do some experimenting in the third game. He mixed things up by moving sophomore libero Laurence Favrot into the regular rotation and inserted rehabbing captain Will Reppun in his place.

“We kind of beat them easily in the first two games,” Fitz said. “Because we had a little bit of room to work with, we were going to try a few new things.”

With the changes in place, the third game proved to be the closest of the three. The teams remained deadlocked to start the frame until two blocks and two kills from Freese—who supplemented his match-high 11 blocks with 11 kills—allowed the Crimson to pull away in the final stages.

Freese, however, gave Reppun the credit for making the difference.

“In the last game, when we had Will, Laurence, and Juan all passing—they’re our three best passers,” Freese said. “It was great to get Will back in the game.”

The opportunity to play in such a situation was a major step forward for Reppun, who had not seen any playing time recently.

“Our team plays really well together on the court,” Reppun said. “We have a lot of fun out there, so it’s good to be back.”

Harvard—having completed its five-game homestand—will hit the road this weekend, heading to the Empire State to face NYU and division rival NJIT.