The Harvard women's volleyball team rolled out the welcome mat for Boston College, Brown and Princeton this weekend, hosting an invitational tournament at the Malkin Athletic Center.

Unfortunately for the Crimson, the Eagles, Bears and Tigers spent the whole weekend walking all over that mat.

With four lopsided losses--none of the games were even close--Harvard dropped its overall record to a woeful 3-16 for the season and secured last place for itself in the Ivy League.

The entire tournament, however, was oddly one-sided. Every game--including the final between eventual champion Brown and runner-up Princeton--ended up a blowout.

In the first round, Brown defeated Harvard, 3-0, while Princeton downed BC by the same easy margin.

Sophomore Rachel Heit said this first loss set the tone for the Crimson's weekend.

"[That loss] really frustrated everyone, and really affected our play for the rest of the tournament," Heit said. "Our poor performance overall was really the consequence of problems with our mental game."

Heit is right. Harvard barely managed to put up a fight against its next opponent, falling 3-0 to Princeton, after the Tigers raced to a 14-0 lead in the first game.

Meanwhile, Brown defeated BC in the other match by a score of--yep, you guessed it--3-0.

In the final rotation of the round-robin format tourney, BC did its duty, keeping Harvard's winless streak alive with a 3-0 trouncing of the Crimson, while Princeton upended Brown, 3-0.

The semifinal games held Sunday morning pitted Princeton against Harvard again, and Brown against BC. Both the Tigers and the Bears ran away with 3-0 victories. The two teams met in the finals, with Brown claiming the tournament's title, 3-0.

"We just didn't play very well this weekend," said Co-Captain Michelle Carlo, who was named Ivy Player of the Week despite her team's three losses. "Our serves were off, our blocking needed help and we played a very disorganized game."

"It's really been a hard season," said Assistant Captain Jennifer Bates. "We were juggling line-ups a lot when [starting setter] Jennifer Garcia was out with an injury."

Harvard has only recently welcomed back the services of junior Co-Captain Garcia, although "she and Michelle ran the offense well for Harvard this weekend," Bates said.

Representing the Crimson, Heit, an outside hitter, played well defensively and was consistent throughout the whole tournament, while junior middle blocker Ngozi Ogbunamiri also put on a notable performance at the net for Harvard.