And the Horned Frogs didn’t waste much time going after it.

TCU took the first two games by the scores of 30-20 and 30-14, but struggled to hold off a Crimson squad, which was improving with every play, en route to a 3-1 (30-20, 30-14, 27-30, 30-26) victory.

After getting hammered in the first two games of the match, Harvard matched the Horned Frogs point-for-point in the third frame. Neither side could claim more than a two-point advantage until a bad pass by TCU gave the Crimson a 22-19 lead. Harvard took seven of the next 11 points to push the gap to six, 29-23.

The Crimson had a bit of trouble closing out the match, as Horned Frog freshman Talaya Whitfield recorded four straight kills, before Harvard freshman Mimi Hanley finished a kill of her own to give the Crimson the game.

“Mimi’s done an awesome job subbing in on the right side, blocking, hitting and finding holes in the defense,” Gould said.

The momentum carried over to the fourth frame, as Harvard jumped out to an 11-5 lead. But the Crimson attack could only muster one kill over the next 14 points, allowing the Horned Frogs to wipe away the deficit and stake to a four-point lead of their own, 17-13. Harvard stayed with TCU the rest of the way, but could never chip away at the lead, falling by the same margin, 30-26.

“We got better with each game,” Weiss said. “But there were some jitters there while we got the kinks worked out.”

—Staff writer Michael R. James can be reached at mrjames@fas.harvard.edu.