"They had some pretty bad hecklers," Lewis said. "In the third and fourth games, they just started getting inside our heads."

Harvard won the toss at the beginning of game five. With the score tied, 2-2, Harvard won a critical point after a long rally to break Sacred Heart's momentum.

Freshman outside hitter Paul Guilianelli delivered a kill that bounced off a Sacred Heart defender's head and rebounded out of bounds past the baseline. That winner was the first in a 6-1 run that allowed the Crimson to go up 8-3.

"In the fifth game, our passing was much more solid and our play was more intense," Lewis said. "We were talking on the court, and that's something we weren't doing in the third and fourth games."

The Crimson began the day with a travelling snafu, arriving in Fairfield at 12:40 p.m. because it incorrectly thought that the match was scheduled to start at 2 p.m.

That left Harvard limited time to practice and get its game face on, but surprisingly, the delay didn't prove much of a problem, as the Crimson opened the first game with a 10-1 run.

Sacred Heart struggled to establish an offensive rhythm in dropping the first two games.

"They weren't really a strong offensive team," Pankau said. "They hit a lot of balls long, a lot of balls into the net and got a lot of shots blocked, so when our defense did get to handle balls, it responded well."