NYU 3, HARVARD 2

To begin its road trip, Harvard fell to host NYU, 3-2, in the Coles Sports Center of Manhattan, N.Y., on Friday night.

Though both teams started the game off slowly, with errors on both sides of the net, the Violets were able to jump to an early 1-0 lead in the match.

The Crimson battled back in the second set, evening the score at 1-1 with the help of Rehkemper and junior co-captain outside hitter Matt Jones.

“It was such a back-and-forth game because both teams were setting up their attackers with good opportunities for kills,” Rehkemper said.

The two teams battled like this for the rest of the game, with NYU taking the third set to gain the lead. But once again, Jones, Rehkemper, and Harvard took advantage of kill opportunities and evened the score.

In the fifth set, the Violets and their efficient attacks proved to be too much for the Crimson. NYU took the lead and never looked back, winning, 15-11.

“The division is pretty tough all around in…but we can definitely hang with good teams like NYU,” said Gibbons. “We’ve only struggled with finishing games, and I think that will just come with continuing to play together when we come back next season.”

Jones led all attackers with a total of 26 kills for the match, but it wasn’t enough for Harvard to come out victorious.

“[Matt] has really stepped up this season as a leader and has kept us in a lot of tight games,” Rehkemper said. “The team needs consistency, and we can usually count on him for a lot of kills.”

With losses to both the Violets and NJIT, the Crimson continues to struggle to win within the EVIA division. But Harvard has one last chance when it plays the final game of the season against the Highlanders on April 16 at the Malkin Athletic Center.

Despite the struggles this season, the team is optimistic about the future.

“Essentially most of our team is returning next season,” said Gibbons. “This season we have struggled to finish and get wins, but it has also been good for us to gel as a team on and off the court.”