Before last year's Ivy League volleyball tournament, Harvard Coach Wayne Lem proclaimed, "We aren't going to be the doormats of the Ivy League anymore."

Lem's statement proved correct.

Last year, the Harvard women's volleyball team finished in fifth place with a 1-2 record, but more important, the squad played its best match of the season against Cornell in the tournament quarterfinals.

Even though the spikers lost a tough 15-6, 15-3, 7-15, 15-6 decision to the Big Red, the match set a foundation for this season.

"This is a perfect time for the team to show what it is made of," Lem said. "The kids worked hard all year. I don't think they liked the idea of being called the doormats of the Ivy League."

"We have to work hard and really concentrate on playing as a team," Co-Captain Jodi Cassell said. "When we're on, I don't think there is an Ivy team that we can't beat."

The spikers entered the 1987-'88 campaign knowing that they could compete with the top Ivy League teams.

Harvard, 3-4 in league action (15-9 overall), will open the 11th annual Ivy League tournament against Cornell at Barnard Gymnasium in New York.

The Ivy League tournament will operate in a best-three of five format. Cornell captured a 15-4, 15-10, 9-15, 15-13 decision over Harvard last month in Ithaca.

"I think it's a good match-up for us," Lem said. "We have another shot at them. They beat us earlier in the year. We went away feeling we could have beaten them."

Going into the match against Cornell and throughout the tournament, Harvard will have a major disadvantage: height.

"We have to use quick hits and quit hits to negate the height advantage of the other teams," Lem said.

But the spikers have utilized short sets and fine defensive coverage in negating the height factor.

Since the championship began in 1977, Princeton has won the Ivy tournament six times, Penn three times and Yale once.

The Crimson has posted a 10-23 tournament record since becoming a varsity sport in 1981.

"We're hoping to finish in the top four," Co-Captain Maia Forman said.