Standout Angela Lutich kept up with the outstanding play that's defined her season so far, assisting on 37 kills and recording 17 digs.

"It was an all-around good game," said Lutich. "We played really solid against a very good defensive team."

The midweek work against non-conference teams like Providence will prepare the Crimson for play later in the season, when more is at stake.

Providence, like Dartmouth and Princeton, relies on its outside game.

"It was good to play a good defensive team," Lutich said. "We kept sending it back, we controlled our errors and let them make their mistakes."

Harvard played with a successful strategy, but the Crimson will need to step up its play if it hopes to find similar results with its remaining Ivy opponents and then later at the Ivy Championship Tournament.

With only two league matches left before the end of the regular season, the Crimson needs to break into the top tier of the Ivy pack. Trying to break through from the bottom four to the top four teams would guarantee a choice seed in the Ivy Tournament

Being seeded in the top four would make the road to the semi-finals and to the league championship that much smoother for the Crimson.