Any athlete will tell you that no amount of drills and practice can replace the invaluable experience gained from playing together in a live-game situation. It’s crucial to work out chemistry and lineups and see what fits best.

It is this experience that makes playing in pre-Ivy tournaments so crucial to teams, and it also means that a sterling record isn’t the objective of the weekend.

The Harvard women’s volleyball team (2-5) went 1-3 over the weekend at the Fordham Invitational, losing to Fordham (6-5), Stony Brook (4-7), and Syracuse (12-0), but earning a win over Rider (1-8).

“We are trying to develop both our offensive and defensive systems,” Crimson coach Jennifer Weiss said. “We are playing different people at different positions, so it’s coming together.”

“And that’s the goal, coming together for the Ivies,” Weiss added. “We beat Rider and we battled with the other ones, so there were a lot of good things that came from this weekend.”

SYRACUSE 3, HARVARD 0

In the final match of the tournament, the Crimson fell to Syracuse, 25-13, 25-18, 25-20. Despite losing all three sets, the team was proud of the way it competed, especially with regards to blocking.

“We really got our system going...establishing a strong block on the outside,” co-captain Miyoko Pettit said. “Our blocking was off the charts in our game against Syracuse. It was really solid—our opponents really didn’t know what to do.”

Syracuse used a strong opening run to jump out to a 19-10 lead in the first set, a lead Harvard could not overcome. The rest of the sets dropped in similar fashion.

Junior libero Christine Wu highlighted Harvard’s efforts in the loss, tallying 14 digs, which earned her all-tournament honors. Senior Mikaelle Comrie and freshman Erin Cooney had seven and six kills, respectively, in the loss, while sophomore Taylor Docter and junior Sandra Lynne Fryhofer each notched three blocks.

“I think we actually ended on good note tonight against Syracuse,” Weiss said. “The level that Syracuse is playing is very high, very strong, and we played them point for point. They were hitting at a higher point, and we were right there with the blocking.”

STONY BROOK 3, HARVARD 1

In the first match Saturday morning, Stony Brook toppled the Crimson, 25-19, 25-19, 20-25, 25-21.

Seawolves used a strong start to breeze through the first set. But Harvard would respond, getting a 13-9 lead halfway through the second set. Stony Brook rallied, using a 15-6 run to seal the second set.

The third set saw the Crimson’s fortunes change, as the team went on a 9-1 run to break open what had been a tight game. But the Seawolves rebounded to take a close fourth set, 25-21.

“[Against] Stony Brook, we absolutely had some more mistakes than in the other two matches,” Weiss said. “We came out kind of slow. We tried to make a comeback in the third game, we won that, and we played well in the fourth game. I was really proud of the way we played in those last two games.”

Junior Anne Carroll Ingersoll, who has been struggling with injuries through preseason, put on a strong showing, earning eight kills and four blocks for the Crimson.

HARVARD 3, RIDER 1

The final match of the opening day saw Harvard win convincingly against Rider, 25-18, 21-25, 25-18, 25-18.

“We were stronger than they were in terms of our overall offense,” Weiss said. “We really used our middle offense and scored a lot from the middle attack. And so that was good—we were definitely dominant [in] that match.”

Docter and Fryhofer each had 11 kills, Docter also added 12 digs, while Cooney had nine kills.

“Rider was very good for building our confidence,” Pettit said. “Almost everyone got to play, and that’s not something we’ve always had in past seasons.”

Harvard used a 9-2 run to open a lead and win the opening set. After a slight hiccup in the second, Harvard would use an 11-5 run to take the third set, and began the fourth set 6-1 to pull away for good.

FORDHAM 3, HARVARD 0

The Crimson lost in three tight sets to open up the tournament on Friday, dropping the match, 25-22, 29-27, 25-23.

“[Against] Fordham, the games were very tight games, [and] we played well,” Weiss said. “We played one for one, and we were really working on controlling our unforced errors.”

Docter spearheaded the Crimson’s offensive effort, tallying 12 kills and two aces .

“Overall, it was a productive weekend,” Weiss said. ”We know learned a lot about what we need to work on to prepare for the future and the Ivies.”

—Staff writer David E. Lopez-Lengowski can be reached at delopez@coll harvard.edu.