It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.

The Harvard women’s volleyball team learned that valuable lesson twice this weekend in true heartbreaking fashion. Against both Penn and Princeton the Crimson grabbed an early 2-1 lead, but allowed the Killer P’s to come back and win each match 3-2.

“It all just a matter of having that mental toughness to finish the game,” said co-captain and middle blocker Mariah Pospisil. “And we just didn’t quite have that this weekend.”

Harvard (4-12, 3-3 Ivy) now sits in fourth place in the Ivies—a full three games back of league-leading Cornell.

“We’re all frustrated about [the weekend losses],” Pospisil said. “But we just want to channel that and come in on Monday and start a whole new season, work hard in practice and win the rest of our games.”

Princeton 3, Harvard 2

Against the Tigers (11-5, 4-1) on Saturday, the Crimson was just four points away from victory and snapping a two-game skid against Ivy foes.

But Princeton dashed Harvard’s hopes, winning the fourth and fifth games to close out the match (30-27, 27-30, 30-21, 26-30, 9-15).

“In the last game, we’ve just got to finish,” said Harvard coach Jennifer Weiss. “We can’t let a team play at us, we have to play at them.”

In the fifth game, the Tigers coasted to a 15-9 victory on the heels of a 9-3 run that shattered any hope the Crimson had of finishing the weekend with a win.

The fourth game also offered Harvard a chance to win as it held a 22-19 lead before a five-point Princeton run snatched the momentum away. But the Crimson answered with four points to put Harvard up 26-24. It was here that the Tigers stunned the Crimson by taking the next six points—three on Harvard miscues—to force the decisive fifth game.

“We play well early in the game,” Pospisil said. “But when the score gets past twenty, we start getting tentative and we start making stupid mistakes.”

The Crimson dominated the third frame, storming out of the gate with an 8-1 advantage. After the Tigers closed the lead to one, Harvard responded with a nine-point run to open a 19-9 advantage. Princeton could get no closer than seven the rest of the way, as the Crimson took the game 30-21 and a 2-1 lead in the match.

The Crimson trailed 27-22 in the second game, but rallied to take the next three points. An inopportune net violation halted the comeback, and Princeton held on to take the game 30-27.

The first game went back and forth until the Crimson put together a four-point run on the strength of two aces by junior setter Kim Gould to take a 24-20 lead. The Tigers closed the lead to one at 27-26, but kills by junior outside hitter Nilly Schweitzer and Pospisil helped Harvard secure a 30-27 victory.