It seemed to be a routine kill that knotted the score at four in the first game. For junior outside hitter Kaego Ogbechie it was anything but.

Ogbechie—sidelined for the first seven games of the year—announced her arrival in grand fashion, registering three kills in a span of four points in the first game of the Harvard women’s volleyball team’s match against Dartmouth on Friday night.

“It just felt good to be back playing on the court and in the huddle with the team after every play,” said Ogbechie. “But I still feel that I have a long way to go to get back to the level where I want to be.”

Ogbechie’s return was the spark that the Crimson needed to start Ivy League play off on a positive note.

However, Harvard would not be able to carry its good fortune over to Saturday, dropping matches to Long Island 3-0 and Northeastern 3-2. Ogbechie did not see action in either match as she was resting her injured knee.

Harvard 3, Dartmouth 1

The clean slate that the Ivy opener provided was exactly what Harvard needed.

The Crimson closed out a tight fourth game in grand fashion taking 14 of the final 20 points to take the match 3-1 (30-24, 27-30, 30-24, 30-22). “You can see the smiles on everyone’s faces,” Ogbechie said. “We just said that we needed a win and that’s it.”

Harvard had forged five-point leads on two separate occasions early in the fourth frame, but the Big Green (5-4, 0-1 Ivy) was able to claw back and knot the game at 16.

But an 8-0 Crimson run aided by Ogbechie’s two kills and a block put the game out of reach.

In her highly anticipated return to the lineup, Ogbechie registered 15 kills, second only to senior outside hitter Nathalie Miller’s match-high 16.

“I felt like I was back to my old self again,” Ogbechie said. “I had some good plays and bad plays but I was happy with my performance.”

Early in game three, with the match tied at a game a piece and the score 11-10, Harvard made the move it needed to make.

And Dartmouth decided to help.

After a kill by co-captain middle blocker Mariah Pospisil, a Big Green player slipped, then missed a kill attempt, and executed a double hit on consecutive points. The sequence helped the Crimson take eight out of 10 points and post a commanding 19-12 lead it would never relinquish.