But then the squad began hitting rocks, losing five on a six-game string. The Crimson was blanked by Rutgers and California at the Golden Dome Classic in Newark, N.J., and, after edging past Dartmouth at home, 3-1, lost of Rutgers, 3-0, nemesis Princeton, 3-0, and Springfield, 3-1. The team was 5-7 and the Princeton match-up seemed a distant dream.

But then Harvard started winning. First there was Yale, a 3-0 victim; Roger Williams, another 3-0 victim; and then four teams at the Concordia Invitational, where the Crimson finished second. Next, after a 3-0 loss to Queens in the finals of that tournament, the team edged past NYU and Yale, both by 3-2 scores, and then stomped MIT, 3-0, to finish off the year.

All that was left was the Ivy Tournament and Princeton. And the rest, as they say, was history.

No Ivy championship. No NCAA tournament bid. And no complaints.

"You've got to look at this season in context," Acoba says. "Other teams were getting better and we were coming off of a great season last year."

"We sustained the momentum we've created the last couple of years, and that in itself is an accomplishment," Gonzalez says. "We've done some great things here the past few years--we've really given Harvard's program an identity. We did nothing to hurt that identity this season."

MEN'S VOLLEYBALL

Record: 14-8

Ivy League: 4-1

Key Players: Ned Staebler, Chris Wood, Pete Buletza

Seniors: Micah Acoba, Jon Carpenter, Jonathon Ellisor, Carlos Gonzalez, Mike Meyer, Chris Wood