The Harvard men's volleyball team knew how important its match was against Springfield College Tuesday night.

After dropping two EIVA games already, including a loss at home last week to Springfield, the Harvard players knew they had to beat Springfield on the road in order to keep alive any realistic hope of winning the EIVA.

Unfortunately, knowing what they had to do wasn't enough.

Despite taking a 1-0 lead, the Crimson suffered a 3-1 defeat to Springfield on Tuesday night, registering Harvard's third straight losing effort against EIVA opponents.

"In so many ways it was a positive step," sophomore forward Jon Carpenter said. "That's why it was so disappointing to come away from there with a loss."

With the loss, Harvard (18-5 overall, 5-3 EIVA) has only a very slim chance of winning its conference's title.

After an impressive win in the first game, the Crimson began to make costly mistakes and could not keep the pressure on Springfield.

The Crimson was unable to with stand the intense attack applied by Springfield in the second and third games.

The Unfortunate Fourth

Harvard began to rally in the fourth, but questionable officiating crushed the team's comeback.

"I personally think it was blatant," Carpenter said of about four calls over the last six points, "but we never should have had ourselves in a position where the referee could lose the game for us."

"It was a disappointment to say the least. It's frustrating because we know we can win," freshman Ned Staebler said.

"The players were timid and were too worried about making mistakes," Harvard Coach Ihsan Gurdal said.

He added that the players need to play as one team and not worry too much about individual performances, echoing the sentiment junior Captain Vince Marin expressed after the first meeting with Spring-field last week.

"We were inconsistent last night. We definitely had some problems and the blocking was a little shaky," junior Per Dutton said.

A Bright Side

Gurdal was impressed, however, with some aspects of Harvard's effort on Tuesday.

"They're on the right track and are improving day by day," he said.

Harvard travels to New Haven tonight where it will meet up with the Bulldogs in a seeding match for the Ivy League tournament to be held in April.