The Crimson slowed down slightly at the beginning of the second game, but again came back with a big surge to take the lead.

This time, it was Reppun serving when Harvard extended a 13-12 lead to a 17-12 advantage.

The Highlanders again tried to slow the Crimson’s momentum with a timeout, but Harvard pulled further ahead, 27-18.

NJIT tried to sneak back in with a serving run taking them to 28-21, but Keller called a timeout to get the Crimson’s focus back.

“I just wanted to talk,” Keller said. “I could sense that they were starting to relax too much.”

Moments later, Kowell closed out the game with a kill in the middle of the court.

Harvard opened the third game as it had the first—with Bookman’s serving and some hard hitting propelling the Crimson ahead, 5-1.

The Highlanders took one last gasp, and it looked like Harvard might have a tougher match on its hands when the NJIT evened the score at 10.

“We had stretches of errors,” Bookman said. “But we pulled away in the middle of the game, which is a crucial time.”

In the same fashion as the first two games, the Crimson moved ahead 15-11 on serving from Bookman and Ramos.

The Highlanders took a final timeout, which upset Ramos’ serving streak and sparked a series of side-outs.

Harvard finally escaped from this rhythm to take the game, 30-24.

“We needed to break the cycle,” Keller said. “Our goal is to put ourselves back in the playoffs. It’s a matter of coming out and executing.”

—Staff writer Lande A. Spottswood can be reached at spottsw@fas.harvard.edu.