The Harvard men's volleyball team proved a season ago that it had what it takes to be a contender. The Crimson took Princeton to a decisive third game, even winning the first, in the best-of-three Ivy League Tournament final, before falling to the Tigers.

This season, with a year's experience under its belt, a team stocked with vengeful seniors and greater team cohesion, was supposed to be different.

It was not. Harvard (15-15, 1-3 EIVA) closed out a roller-coaster season with a three-game loss to No. 12 Princeton in the Ivy Tournament finale, just a few games shy of the upset that could have made the careers of seven seniors.

"It was pretty important to us to win" said sophomore co-captain Ed Pankau. "It was out last chance to play together."

There is something poetic in Harvard's .500 record, an indicator of precisely how inconsistent this team was all season. At times they could hit with some of the best teams in the nation; at others, they were unable to execute against weaker opposition.

"The season went like the Ivy tourney did," said senior Kalon Morris. "Sometimes things went well and sometimes we couldn't put anything together."

The season started sluggishly, as the Crimson dropped matches to several teams they expected to beat, such as SUNY-New Palz, LIU Southampton and NYU.

But Harvard proved soon thereafter that when it played to its potential, weaker opponents need not apply. The Crimson rebounded from back-to-back losses to Southampton and NYU by cleaning up at the Vassar-hosted Burgundy and Grey Invitational Tournament, Feb. 20-21.

The Crimson took home the tournament championship, losing just one set in four matches, a 3-1 win over Jersey City State and 3-0 skunks of Queens College, NYU and Mount St. Vincent's. The only reason the Crimson even lost a game was because it started its second stringers in the first match.

"We played with a lot of confidence and composure against teams that have beaten us in the past," said co-captain A.J. Lewis after Harvard's tournament win. "Our blocking and serving got much better."

Queens College is a traditional volleyball powerhouse, and NYU showed a week earlier that it could pose a challenge. But Harvard's hitting percentage improved dramatically, and two players--junior middle blocker Evan Mager and senior setter Evan Beachy--earned All-Tournament honors.

"When we got into the final, we didn't have a question in our minds that we were going to win," Lewis said. "We played to our potential for the first time this season."

Record: 15-15, 1-3 EIVA

Coach: Ihsan Gurdal

Highlights: Finish second at Ivy League Tournament

Seniors: Evan Beachy, Eric Lin, Kalon Morris, Ryan Oliver, David Olson, Jim Rothschild, Eric Wang

But if the Vassar Tournament was a peak, a valley was inevitably to follow, as the Crimson was overpowered Feb. 28 at then-No. 17 Princeton, 15-6, 15-6, 15-6. After a win over Vassar, Harvard lost its next four matches, including a pair of losses to the cream of the EIVA crop, No. 13 Rutgers and the No. 17 New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), assuring that Harvard would be out of the mix for EIVA postseason play.

The NJIT loss, a five-set heartbreaker, was particularly gut-wrenching since the Crimson took the first two games before losing the last three. The final set was a point-for-point thriller, which Harvard finally lost, 18-16.

After a couple of easy wins against unequivocally weaker teams Sacred Heart and MIT, Harvard prepared for its annual trip to California to tackle some of the nation's best programs.

It was the Californians who did most of the tackling, however.

The Crimson returned to Cambridge with a 2-4 record, losing to nationally ranked teams UC-Santa Barbara (No. 11) and Long Beach State (No. 6), twice to team it could well have beaten--Cal State-San Bernardino and La Verne. The lonewins were expected conquests of Claremont McKennaand Pomona Pitzer.

The trip was largely unsuccessful, but therewas still a chance for redemption. Harvard knew itcould compete with ranked opponents, and the IvyTournament gave it its final chance to prove itcould actually beat them.

Harvard topped Cornell and Penn, while losingto Columbia, to advance to the Tournament finals.Harvard took the first set against the Tigers,9-15, before losing the next two, 15-7, 15-9.

It was an improvement on the earlier 3-0 sweep,but Harvard still came up short.

"Overall they were a more solid team," Pankausaid. "When it gets down and dirty, they have whatit takes to pull it out."

Harvard had trouble finding that je ne saisquoi all season--whether it is physical ormental, a new cast may be precisely what thisproduction needs. The Crimson graduates sevenundeniably talented seniors who were never fullyable to make Harvard a talented team.

"We never pulled it together and played asone," Pankau said. "We never had a chance to bondas a team. However, [next season] will be a newgeneration of Harvard volleyball. We have fourfreshmen coming in--at least one will have to be asetter. It will be a good thing to have completechange, because we've been struggling the pastcouple of years."Crimson File PhotoSenior DAVID OLSON prepares to serve.