This season, Harvard's women's volleyball team enters the second year of the Jennifer Bates era.
Bates was named head coach of the Crimson last season. While her addition did not bring a winning season nor a league championship--the squad went 9-16 overall and 2-5 in league play--it did bring a renewed vigor and confidence within the program.
"She was great," departing co-captain Jennifer Garcia said after the last season. "She was always there for us, and she was always helpful."
"There's real feeling of excitment now, and that's something we haven't had in a while," she added. "While that's only one step towards being a really good team, it's really big step."
This season Garcia will be around to watch her former teammates make the next step towards being a "really good team" as she returns to the team as an assistant coach.
On the whole, the Crimson has a chance to elevate Harvard volleyball to a new level. It will usher in a large crop of talented freshman. It returns a number of solid, experienced sophomores and juniors, as last year's team was extremely young.
In all, seven freshmen are listed on the team's roster this season. They are: Rachel Gold from La Mesa, Calif.; Elissa Hart from Sacramento, Calif.; Sarah Logan from Cardiff, Calif.; Lolita Lopez from Houston, Tex.; Molly Meenan from Newton, Mass.; and Stephanie Salm from Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Foremost among those returning will be co-captain Rachel Heit (386 defensive digs, 23 serving aces, 179 kills), junior Jenn Jose (235 kills, 69 blocks, 283 defensive digs, 18 serving aces), sophomore Lisa Grant (190 defensive digs) and sophomore Heather Rypkema (175 kills, 17 blocks). Grant, Rypkema and Heit are outside hitters, while Jose is a middle hitter.
Rypkema and Grant are the only two returning sophomores. In addition to Jose, the team will return two juniors: outside hitter Alexandra Green and setter Mika Sampson. And the team will return three senior besides Heit: co-captain setter Judy Iriye, outside hitter Jessica Dowme and middle hitter Kelli Avers.
To achieve its goal of becoming a contender for the Ivy League crown, the team will be looking to avoid the sort of streaky play to which it was victim last season, particularly without the heart of the Ivy League schedule.
After beginning the season by winning three of five at the Harvard Classic, to Northeastern (3-1), Dart mouth (3-0) and Dartmouth (3-0), the team lost eight of its next nine matches. During that span it dropped games to Boston College (0-3), Bentley (2-3), Brown (1-3), Bucknell (0-3), Princeton (0-3), Pennsylvania (0-3), Cornell (1-3) and Columbia (2-3). The Crimson then finished its regular season by winning two of four before winning two of four at the Harvard Invitational and one of three at the Ivy Tournament.
The Crimson finished sixth over all in league play.
Read more in Sports
Harvard Crews Put On Sunny Shows
