Harvard received strong support from the bleachers all night, where a crowd of boisterous fans had gathered to celebrate senior night.
“The crowd amps us up,” Ono Horn said. “We always play well under pressure.”
Kocurek continued to baffle the Bears defense with her serving entering the third, contributing another ace during the early rounds of the frame.
Brown had trouble returning the serve all night, allowing Harvard to rack up 10 aces.
“We served aggressively [on Friday], and we continued to [Saturday],” Weiss said.
The Crimson maintained a healthy lead throughout the final frame in part thanks to the duo of Durwood and Ingersoll—the pair generated five kills off of just as many assists.
Providing an appropriate finish to the night, Flescher closed out the shutout 25-17 on a strike from the right that ricocheted off a Brown defender.
“You have to focus that much harder on the simple things, and they did a nice job,” Weiss said.
YALE 3, HARVARD 2
Two hours and two minutes of volleyball were decided by one point Friday night.
In a fifth-set overtime situation that seemed to be stretching into the length of a normal set, Yale’s Cat Dailey lined up and drove in a final kill to end the frame, 19-17, and give the Bulldogs (18-4, 8-3) a 3-2 victory.
Dailey’s kill—her third in overtime and 21st of the night—ended a long struggle in which Harvard nearly pulled off the upset of the second-ranked team in the Ancient Eight.
Four Crimson players, led by Comrie, hit for double-digit kills.
But Harvard’s defense was probably the most important factor that allowed the Crimson to keep pace with Yale.
Although Dailey and Yale’s Alexis Crusey both hit for more than 20 kills, Harvard’s block rejected plenty more. Relative to the Bulldog’s eight blocks, Harvard posted 15 blocks–nine of which came from Ingersoll.
“Some losses are better than some wins,” Ono Horn said. “That was a good loss.”
The Crimson wraps up Ivy League play next weekend with a two-game set against the “Killer P’s” tandem of Penn and Princeton.
—Staff writer Emmett Kistler can be reached at ekistler@fas.harvard.edu.