It wasn't another St. Valentine's Day massacre, or even a blowout, for that matter, but the Harvard men's volleyball team hosted Roger Williams University last night and, in contrast to what the final 3-0 tally might indicate, it eked out a victory by the narrowest of margins.

It was a quality win nonetheless, as it restored the Crimson (4-1, 1-1 Hay) to its winning ways. Making it even sweeter was that it came against Harvard's top rival in the Odeneal division last year.

Before the match, Havard Coach Tom Wilson set three goals for his squad: to serve agressively, to pass off the serve better, and to quicken the team's blocking speed to counteract the Hawks' team speed.

In addition, he stressed that the newly instated rally-scoring system would increase the pace of the game, and allow the team with the greater side-out percentage to win.

The Crimson players entered the match with the memory of the weekend's 3-0 loss to Vassar fresh on their minds, but quickly turned their focus to the task at hand, jumping out to an early 4-0 lead. Conspicuously absent from the Harvard lineup, though, was freshman phenom Juan Carlos Cardet, who was benched for the first game for arriving late to a team meeting.

Before long, Roger Williams awoke and the teams essentially traded points for some time, with the Hawks successfully preventing Harvard from extending its lead but failing to cut into it significantly, either. Contributing to the Hawks' relative success were several service errors committed by Crimson players attempting jump serves in accordance with the first of Coach Wilson's goals.

With Roger Williams down 29-27 and facing game point, Crimson sophomore middle blocker Alex Kowell sent a jump serve long, giving Roger Williams a point and the serve. After a Harvard timeout, however, the Hawks committed a line violation, allowing the few fans in attendance to mark down the first game for the Crimson.

The second game proved to be even closer than the first, as it featured eleven ties and five lead changes. The pattern was established straight from the outset, with the two teams exchanging points on each other's serves to 5-5. Roger Williams then took its first lead of the match at 6-5, but Harvard ran off three straight points to take an 8-6 advantage.