Led by Buletza, freshmen setter Evan Beachy, junior middle-hitter Ryan Westendorf, and junior outside-hitter Ben Taxy, Harvard reeled off six of the next seven points to take a 14-9 lead.

The Big Green scored twice to make it 14-11, but Buletza smashed one home to give Harvard the side out, and then, like Karch Kiraly to Steve Timmons in the 1988 Olympic gold medal game against the Russians, he set up Taxy perfectly for the monster kill to end it.

"We took them out of their game plan by setting up the middle," Gurdal said.

Asked what the difference between the second set (which Harvard lost) and the beginning of the first and third sets (which the Crimson dominated) was, Gurdal cited serving and passing.

"Whenever we served and passed well we would dominate," he said. "We're a much better team, and the whole match should have been like that [the beginning of the first and third sets]."

Harvard captain Abbas Hyderi had a slightly different take on the game, attributing the Crimson's victory to both "true grit" and good serving.

"Our substitutes served well," Hyderi said. "Our problem is not being consistent in these matches against weaker teams."

Harvard travels to New York this weekend to play New York University and Long Island University-South Hampton. Both teams are in the middle of the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA) standings.

"These weekend teams are not the top two in our league," Gurdal said. "If we want to do anything in the league, we must beat these teams to go after the top teams, like Rutgers and Princeton."