Bears and Bulldogs Bow to Crimson as Volleyball Bounces Back Twice

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., — Harvard proved its resilience twice this weekend in a set of 3-2 wins, coming back from 2-1 set deficits in two consecutive games to extend the team’s undefeated record in five-set matches. With the pair of victories, head coach Jennifer Weiss earned a hard-fought 400th career win.

The Crimson (16-3, 7-3 Ivy League) clawed back to secure a victory against Brown (5-13, 3-7) on Friday, proving its offensive prowess with strong performances from the Ivy League Rookie of the Week, outside hitter Kayla Nwabueze, and sophomore outside hitter Bridget Egan, who posted 15 kills each after recording career highs in their team’s match against Dartmouth a week prior.

Harvard repeated its comeback performance on Saturday against Yale (14-4, 8-2), securing a regular-season sweep over the Bulldogs with strong showings and high hitting percentages from sophomore outside hitter Sofia Rossi and junior captain and middle blocker Riley Resmer.

“We stayed in the moment, and we wanted to do some things on our offense and our defense,” Weiss said about the team’s ability to fight its way back. “We were very specific to what our plan was, and we stuck to the plan.”

Harvard 3, Brown 2

The first game of the weekend was neck and neck early in the first set, as both teams compensated for minor errors with strong offensive performances. The Bears found their footing first, scoring eight of the next 10 points to gain a 13-8 lead over the Crimson.

Harvard, capitalizing on a series of hitting errors, followed up with a seven-point run to take a 15-13 lead.

Big kills from Nwabueze, Egan, and senior outside hitter Ali Farquhar kept the Crimson’s advantage for the rest of the set, with one swing from Nwabueze challenged by Brown when the referee deemed the ball had been touched. The ruling was soon overturned, leaving the teams just one point apart toward the end of the set and leaving Harvard vulnerable. However, the Crimson held on, rounding out the set with an ace from Nwabueze and two kills from Egan to win 25-20.

The Bears were determined to fight back, taking an early 6-2 lead in the second set. Though Harvard demonstrated its strength in a series of competitive rallies throughout the rest of the set, it couldn’t overcome Brown’s offensive power and its own mistakes, dropping the set 25-18.

The third set was far closer from the outset, with the Crimson capitalizing on the Bears’ errors and showing its strength at the net and service line, recording three blocks and three aces in a close contest to take a 17-16 lead.

Brown took control from there, though, and shut down Harvard’s offense while firing up its own to score 13 of the last 15 points of the game, ending the set with a score of 25-17.

The Crimson’s only hope of winning was to take the fourth set — and it did just that.

An absolutely dominant performance from the home team left the Bears in the dust early, where they remained. Harvard’s offense came out swinging — literally — with four members of the team recording three or more kills. The Crimson concluded its masterclass with a dominant 25-9 win, proving it could not be fazed by Brown’s third-set performance.

With the game on the line in the fifth set, both teams understood that they had to sprint to the 15-point finish line. Tensions were high, with two different calls — one on an attack by the Bears’ freshman Elle Holley and one by Resmer — being challenged and ultimately ruled in Harvard’s favor.

The Crimson’s six-point run, featuring three blocks from Resmer and freshman opposite hitter Masina Ogbechie on Brown’s leading scorer of the match, junior Fisayo Afonja, brought the score to 12-6 — a deficit which the Bears could not overcome. A well-placed tip from the hand of Ogbechie won the Crimson both the set and the match.

Harvard 3, Yale 2

The following night at Harvard’s Malkin Athletic Center, the team pulled out another five-set win, coming back from a 2-1 deficit once again. This time, the victory came against the conference leader Yale, giving the Crimson its first winning streak against the Bulldogs since 2021.

However, the journey to the win was a lot tougher than the simple 3-2 score suggests, as Harvard had to rally behind a strong offensive performance to force the game to five sets after an early deficit.

From the start, the first set was extremely close. Each time the Crimson pulled ahead by one point, Yale did not waste a second to respond, squandering Harvard’s initial lead and tying the game at 13-13.

The Bulldogs maintained their pressure for the rest of the set, but they could not finish the job. On the back of a sequence of kills by Ogbechie, the Crimson pulled away to clinch the first set 25-18.

The second set got off to a rough start for Harvard, with Yale regaining its lost momentum and going on an eight-point run to end the technical time ahead 15-4. Harvard continued to fight back with a series of kills by Farquhar to try to pull the gap to within 10 points; however, this set seemed destined to go to the Bulldogs. The Crimson was unable to ignite any scoring runs, losing the second set 25-11.

The third set mirrored the second, as Yale and Harvard traded points early on until a six-point run allowed the Bulldogs to take the lead 15-6. Each time the Crimson shifted momentum back, Yale swung back harder, capitalizing on Harvard’s several attack errors to secure the third set 25-11.

Despite starting off the match strong, the two back-to-back defeats prompted Weiss to pull her team in for a huddle to reignite its lost momentum.

When asked how she encouraged her team to stay positive for the rest of the match, Weiss said she simply reiterated that “they had to decide what they wanted to know” and that “they know what the game plan is.”

Motivated by Weiss’s trust, the Crimson came back with tenacity and strength in the fourth set. Harvard quickly took back control, opening up an early 9-3 advantage thanks to a series of kills by Egan, who ended the night with 10.

The Bulldogs kept the pressure on, slowly shrinking the gap and tying the game five times at 17, 19, 20, 21, and 23 points. Rossi played a defining role in helping Harvard maintain its one-point advantage all the way to the set point. A big block by Resmer and Ogbechie sealed the 25-23 win, keeping the Crimson alive heading into the fifth.

In the final set, the Ancient Eight rivals traded points until Harvard, rallying behind its newfound momentum, pulled away on a seven-point run to take a 10-4 lead. Yale’s defensive ability completely crumbled under a series of six kills by Rossi, enabling the Crimson to secure a comfortable 15-7 win.

With its second victory over the Bulldogs this season, Harvard extended its winning streak to four games and now sits in third place in the Ivy League standings. If the Crimson win one of its next four games, it will secure a bid to the upcoming Ivy League Tournament, making its first appearance since 2023.

This weekend, Harvard will hit the road to take on the University of Pennsylvania (11-9, 3-7) and Princeton (8-10, 6-4) in the regular season’s penultimate weekend. The Crimson recently fell to the Tigers before rebounding with a reverse sweep over the Quakers.