MIT hit a few too many balls long, and authoritative kills by freshman outside hitter Paul Guilianelli brought the Crimson a 15-5 victory in the second game.

In the third game, the Crimson's most dangerous enemy was itself. With two games in its back pocket, some Harvard players envisioned a productive night with their books a little bit too early in the match. After Harvard surged ahead to an easy 8-1 lead, MIT ran off ten points to find itself at a quick 10-8 advantage over the Crimson.

Questionable calls at the net by the referees and several balls hit long by the Crimson bolstered the MIT lead. Key kills by Michalakis gave the Engineers a 13-10 lead. Authoritative kills by Mager breathed life back into the Crimson, but MIT escaped with a 15-13 win in the third game.

"This season, we've been having problems where we win the first two games and play really well but then we let down," Pankau said. "We're thinking too much about the end result, where we think about winning the match instead of playing the match. It was just very frustrating."

"We started to smell victory," Lewis said. "We started to make a few ball-handling errors, and we started forcing the middle. "

The fourth game began as a painful replay of the third, but fortunately for Crimson fans, Harvard escaped with a win. The Crimson found itself clutching an early 3-0 lead, but balls hit long by Mager and Guilianelli gave MIT a 5-3 advantage.

A kill by Guilianelli forced an MIT side out, and a kill by junior opposite hitter Josh Banerjee allowed Harvard to close to 4-5. Two kills and a dig by Moser gave MIT an 8-4 lead, but the Crimson soon regrouped.