The critics said that Harvard's third-place Ivy League finish was a fluke last year.

They said this year the Crimson would finish fifth or sixth.

They said Harvard was too small.

They were worng.

Last night at the Malkin Athletic Center, the Crimson (7-6 overall, 4-0 Ivy) defeated Dartmouth, 15-11, 15-0, 15-6, and Yale, 15-7, 16-14, 12-15, 11-15, 15-8, to remain in a first-place tie with Princeton and Brown.

Harvard's four Ivy wins are the most ever for the Crimson during a regular season.

After winning the first set by only four points against the Big Green, the Crimson wasted little time in bringing Dartmouth back to earth. Harvard blasted the Big Green in the next two sets to win its third straight Ivy match.

After its tune-up match against Dartmouth, the Crimson faced a much taller Yale squad.

But like Goliath went down to David, so did Yale to Harvard. The result--a record fourth Ivy win.

Where are the critics now?

"We had some stellar play all around," Co-Captain Manda Schossberger said. "Beating Yale was amazing. Everybody played well. This should give us some momentum heading into the Princeton and Penn weekend."

"That was a great match," Captain Maia Forman said. "It feels great beating Yale. Our front-line played very well. Nicole [Anderson], Peri [Wallace] and Jenny [O'Shea], and Manda had great games. We're looking forward to the Penn and Princeton matches this weekend."

Roar

In the first set, Yale jumped out to a 4-1 lead, but the Crimson rallied back to tie the match at 5-5.

Anderson blocked a spike attempt at the net for a side-out for the Crimson. Harvard made the most of it, outscoring the Elis, 9-2, to win the first set.