The Harvard women's volleyball team took Manhattan.
But it could not quite get past Pittsburgh or St. John's in the Harvard Classic held this past weekend at the Malkin Athletic Center.
"It was a little bit of a disappointing weekend," co-captain Kate Nash said.
The disappointment came from two matches the Crimson (3-8, 0-0 Ivy) lost to Big East schools--two matches the team feels it could have won.
"We expected to win both matches," Nash said, "It just didn't happen for us."
Pittsburgh 3, Harvard 1
On Friday the Pittsburgh Panthers (9-5, 0-0 Big East) rolled in confident about victory.
In the first game, Harvard made Pittsburgh think twice.
After Harvard led 7-6, sophomore outside hitter Angela Lutich served up two aces and sophomore middle hitter Katherine Hart blocked a Panther kill to extend the lead to 10-6.
A Pittsburgh timeout did little to quell the Crimson attack as the Panthers could only manage one point before senior co-captain Melissa Forcum ended the game with a kill.
The Pittsburgh, a huge team with eight players at least six-feel-tall, started to turn things around in the second game.
The Crimson kept it close throughout, forcing ties at 11 and 12.
The Panthers pulled ahead, however on two failed Harvard kill attempts--one long and one blocked. Six sideouts later, the Panthers scraped together a point to win the second game 15-12.
The third game opened with two quick Harvard points but Pittsburgh soon ran off six unanswered points. Pittsburgh extended its lead to 9-3 and 12-4 before Harvard pulled itself together. PITTSBURGH 3 HARVARD 1 At 14-7, facing game point, the Crimson managed a three-point rally that included kills by Forcum and Hart, but a Pittsburgh kill closed out the game, 15-10, and gave the Panthers a 2-1 match lead. In the fourth game, Harvard could not stop Pittsburgh's towering front line. Read more in Sports
