The Harvard women's volleyball team enjoys a great luxury: it can play below its level and still come out with a victory.

Last night, the Crimson proved just that, capturing a four-set triumph over Lowell in front of 60 spectators at the Malkin Athletic Center.

Harvard improved its record to 9-3 on the year with a 16-14, 15-8, 13-15, 15-6 victory.

"We didn't play that well," Co-Captain Maia Forman said. "But the fact that we played badly and still were able to win shows the character of the team."

After Lowell (now 15-5) battled to a 6-5 lead in the first set, sophomore Lee Polikoff ignited the Crimson with two scorching smashes, and teammates Manda Schossberger and Suzie Tapson both added shanks, to pull squad in front, 10-6.

Doubling Up

But Lowell rebounded to close Harvard's deficit by one, 11-10, and the vistors even took a 14-13 lead before Harvard put the match away.

The second set was more of the same, with the Crimson completely dominating. Schossberger opened the scoring with one of her three aces, and the Crimson continued to control the action with perfectly placed sets by Forman.

Leading 6-5, Schossberger and Co-Captain Jodi Casell each smashed the ball between Lowell's defense, and Beverley Armstrong followed her teammates with two kills of her own. Armstrong later suffered a shoulder injury.

Tapson recorded two of her five aces to close out the match and give the Crimson a 2-0 advantage in sets.

In the third set, Harvard Coach Wayne Lem replaced five of his six starters with a second-string unit.

The bench players did an admirable job against Lowell's first team, taking a 3-1 lead on dinks by Callie Huber and Carolyn Burger.

But the visitors fought back to grab a 9-7 advantage, and Lem slowly started inserting some starters back into the line-up.

The move worked for awhile, as Tapson tallied three straight aces to give the squad a 10-9 lead, but Lowell went on to capture a 15-13 victory to dash Crimson shutout hopes.

The two teams traded points in the fourth set, then Schossberger and Casell combined for five points with powerful serving and blocking as the spikers went ahead, 9-3.