Last season, as she rode down the long highway to Pennsylvania with the rest of the Harvard women's volleyball team, a fundamental truth dawned on Jennifer Garcia:

This stank.

"Until last year, we always used to travel in vans," said the team's current co-captain. "It wasn't the most comfortable ride, going to Penn and Princeton with 15 people crammed in."

Earlier this season, the team made that same trek to Penn and Princeton. But this time, the ride was "way better," according to junior co-captain Rachel Heit.

The reason? A chauffeured charter bus.

"It's such a relief when you don't have to drive until two in the morning with five people per seat," Heit said.

Heit and her teammates will continue to feel more such relief in the future with the Department of Athletics' recently-announced $250,000 expansion of women's sports programs. While most women's teams will feel its effects, the plan targets the volleyball squad as one of the primary benefactors.

While most of the recent improvements in the team's financial resources--including the bus--predate that funding increase, Coach Jennifer Bates and her players remain hopeful about the future effects of the boost.

The Department of Athletics' announcement in early October that it would elevate the women's volleyball team from Level II to Level I status promised immediate improvements in the program.

"In brief," the department release read, "[the upgrade] means that the team will be scheduled against more competitive opponents, and more resources will be devoted to coaching, travel opportunity, and recruitment of players."

Many Benefits Intangible

While many of these benefits are still intangible, one direct product of the funding increase is the new status of Bates as a full-time coach. With a full-time salaried position, Bates can now devote her more of her energies to recruiting, scheduling and coaching.

In contrast, 1992 coach Wayne Lem ran a self-owned business in addition to his work with Harvard's volleyball squad.

"Coach Bates is getting us involved in more tournaments this year that we haven't gone to before," Heit said. "I have to think that that's at least partially because she has more time."

Many of the funding increase's other effects will be felt not now, however, but in the future, say players.