Though the Crimson led by as much as eight, Northeastern slowly climbed back into the frame, pulling within one point of tying the game at 22-21.

But Harvard held off the Huskies, taking 8 of the next 13 points to escape with a 30-26 victory.

“Our ball control was right on,” said Crimson head coach Jennifer Weiss. “That’s really important—if you can’t pass a ball, you can’t do much of anything else.”

Both teams came out firing to open the match, trading kill for kill. But neither squad could open up a margin larger than two points, and the score remained close for much of the first frame.

With the score tied at 20, however, Northeastern went on a 10-1 run to close out the game and take the early 1-0 match lead.

After looking shaky in the second frame, the Huskies’ offense was unstoppable in game three.

With Harvard hitting at a meager .024 clip, Northeastern jumped out to an early 7-1 lead and kept pounding kill after kill, eventually coasting to a 30-17 win.

—Staff writer Karan Lodha can be reached at klodha@fas.harvard.edu.