Though the plan came undone at Columbia, the Crimson opened the weekend with a 3-1 win (30-24, 28-30, 30-27, 30-24) over the Big Red.

After winning the first game, Harvard’s defense struggled with digging out hits to the middle back while the offense had trouble finding the holes in Cornell’s defense. But the Crimson adjusted for the third and fourth games.

“We rotated our defense around and switched things up,” Jellin said. “We matched up our defense with the way they were hitting.”

Harvard had trouble establishing the block with two people up, an aspect of the game that the team had been practicing. The second game served as a reminder of that practice, and the Crimson settled in for the win, taking full advantage of every slip the Big Red made.

Harvard also benefitted from a diverse offense. Jellin distributed 45 assists to a variety of Crimson players. Ogbechie (18 kills), junior Allison Bendush (12), sophomore Pernilla Schweizer (11) and junior Mariah Pospisil (10) all posted two-digit kill totals.

—Staff writer Jessica T. Lee can be reached at lee45@fas.harvard.edu.