The Harvard women’s volleyball team certainly knows a thing or two about streaks.

The Crimson (9-5, 4-0 Ivy) topped league opponents Columbia and Cornell at the Malkin Athletic Center this weekend as it ran off its fourth straight Ivy win to open the season and its fifth in a row at home.

In defeating the Big Red 3-2 in a head-to-head matchup of the Ancient Eight’s only 3-0 teams, Harvard also snapped its streak of losing five-frame matches at eight, winning for the first time since Nov. 2, 2002, when the Crimson edged Brown 3-2.

“Last year, we had a great team, but we had a lot of trouble closing in the fifth game,” said senior outside hitter Nilly Schweitzer. “This year’s team has such a palpably different attitude. We got to those last couple of points, and I knew—and I felt like everyone else on the court knew—that this was our match.”

With the Bears’ loss to Penn on Saturday, Harvard remains the only undefeated team in the Ivy League. The Quakers have struggled to a 1-2 start, and the Crimson can all but knock the defending league champions out of the race with a win against them next weekend.

“In these games, I think the key is just to make sure that we do our jobs individually and as a team and not worry about the other side so much,” co-captain Kim Gould said. “We can handle whatever they bring us as long as we’re doing what we want to do on our side.”

HARVARD 3, CORNELL 2

After a relatively slow-paced night against Columbia, Harvard’s 3-2 (30-27, 23-30, 30-24, 27-30, 15-13) win against Cornell (9-4, 3-1) resembled a game of pinball.

The two teams split the first four games, setting up a thrilling finish.

Though the Big Red never took the lead in the fifth game, the Crimson did not lead by more than two points until a monstrous kill by co-captain Kaego Ogbechie pushed the score to 13-10. After a timeout, the Big Red rallied for three straight points, knotting the score at 13. But a kill by Schweitzer put Harvard at match point. As Schweitzer went to serve, Cornell called another timeout.

“I was thinking I was going to get an ace,” Schweitzer said. “I knew we were going to win that match.”

While Schweitzer did not get her ace, a wide kill by the Big Red sent the Crimson to the top of the Ivy League standings and into a flurry of celebration.

“We did a great job of staying calm and composed,” Gould said. “[Winning] feels amazing. This game was really important in setting the tone for the rest of the season.”

As the fourth game began, ghosts of the past lingered. Though every team likes closing out matches in the fourth frame, it was especially important to Harvard, considering it had lost all six matches which went the distance in 2003. The Big Red jumped out to an imposing 28-21 lead, but the Crimson refrained from using a timeout. Nevertheless, Ogbechie and Schweitzer led a furious counterattack of six straight points culminating with an ace. Cornell, however, took the next two points to close out the frame and force the tiebreaker.

“The danger in the fifth game,” Gould said, “is that since it is so quick, it can be easy to get frantic and lose a streak of points in a row.”