There is no joy in Mudville for the Harvard women's volleyball team.

After cruising through the first two sets with ease, the Crimson watched helplessly as Williams College stormed from behind, fighting off a third-set match point last night en route to a five-set victory, 7-15, 10-15, 16-14, 15-13, 15-10.

In the first two sets at the Malkin Athletic Center, Harvard's starters were working well together, a great improvement from their losing effort against Holy Cross last Saturday.

"Harvard played very well those first two sets," said Williams Coach Nancy Roberts." "They had an extremely high percentage, and we just couldn't do anything about it. I believe that Harvard is out of our league as far as talent is concerned, and they showed it those first two sets."

Not only did the Crimson commit only one error in the first two sets, but it also executed Coach Wayne Lem's attack strategies perfectly.

In the first set, the Crimson blasted out to a 12-4 lead and never looked back. Aided by three huge kills by Co-Captain Manda Schossberger, Harvard cruised to a 15-7 first-set rout.

The second set was more of the same. Carolyn Burger and Dani Cunningham, the two setters for the Crimson, would pass to either Schossberger or Peri Wallace, who would promptly tattoo a "Spalding" onto an unfortunate Williams forward's forehead.

The Crimson took the second set easily as well. Thirty-five minutes into the match, Harvard was two sets up and looking to run out the match early. Little did Lem's squad know that it was in for a long night.

Turnabout is Fair Play

Things were looking good at the start of the third set. The Crimson went up 9-4 and was feeling very confident--so confident that Lem felt comfortable juggling substitutes into the line-up. That confidence may have cost the Crimson the match.

After a time-out midway through the set, Williams started to edge back with some superb blocks and kills by starters Shelly Whelpton, Holly Hedeman and Kathy McConnell.

Harvard had a match point at 14-12, but Williams quickly ran off three straight points for a set point of its own. Harvard regained its serve, but a mammoth block by McConnell gave Williams one more chance to serve out the set. That was all the visitors needed to close out the frame, 16-14. The momentum had switched.

Williams (7-0) carried its new-found momentum into the fourth and fifth sets. The Crimson (1-3) squandered an 11-8 lead in the fourth and an 8-1 lead in the fifth en route to a disappointing defeat.

"Our setting was much better this game than in the last," said Lem. "There were definitely signs of encouragement in the way we played those first two sets."

The Crimson has to shake off this loss quickly. This weekend, it travels to the Constitution State to take on Connecticut, Central Connecticut and Hartford.

"I think that this weekend will be a real challenge for us," Schossberger said. "We should be up for that challenge."