The Harvard women's volleyball team opened its Ivy League season last night with a disappointing four-set loss to Cornell at Helen Newman Hall in Ithaca, NY.

Harvard (now 10-5 overall, 0-1 Ivy) dropped a tough 15-4, 15-10, 9-15, 15-13 decision to the Big Red (12-7, 1-0).

Despite their loss, the spikers proved that they are a team that must be taken seriously in the Ivies.

"They're a much better team," Cornell Coach Andrea Dutcher said. "They have some really good players. They have a great setter [Maia Forman.] Number four [Lee Polikoff], number 11 [Manda Schossberger] and number 13 [Jodi Cassell] have really improved since last year."

Cornell enjoyed a relatively easy 15-4 victory over the spikers in the first set, but Harvard rebounded to bring the second set closer.

However, Harvard had repeated problems with its service-game, and the Crimson lost many scoring opportunities to misserves. The Big Red capitalized on the spikers miscues to capture a 15-10 triumph.

But for the third straight time in the past two seasons, Harvard rebounded to take the third set from the Big Red.

The Crimson will try to rebound from the set-back this afternoon, when it takes on Columbia. Last month, the Crimson recorded a five-set victory over the Lions.