“Our blocking and our defense were really strong, and any time those things are strong it allows us to diversify our offense and get a lot of kills,” Kinsella said.

With the win, the Harvard remains in fifth place in the Ivy League.

“It feels good to end on a good night,” Docter said. “It’s nice to have two games in a weekend because we had a chance to come back.”

COLUMBIA 3, HARVARD 1

After dropping the first set to Columbia on Friday night, the Crimson came back to take the second. But Harvard couldn’t build on its momentum. The Lions was able to find holes in the Crimson’s defense and win the next two, defeating Harvard for the first time this season.

“They scouted us well, and they were targeting our weaker areas,” said junior right side Erin Cooney. “On offense they definitely knew where to block us and what our hitting tendencies were, which was really frustrating.”

The Crimson’s best stretch of the night came at the end of the second set. With the score tied at 19, Harvard went on a five-point run to close out the game, scoring the winning point on an attack error by Lions middle hitter Katarina Jovicic.

“In the second game we realized that if we could get on a run with them, they would shut down,” Cooney said. “When they got a run [in the third] we broke down a little bit and weren’t expecting it. From that point on the momentum went away a little bit.”

Cooney, Docter and Wallace all notched double-digit kills for the Crimson, but it was not enough to overcome an offensive onslaught by the Lions. Outside hitter Megan Gaughn’s 20 kills kept Columbia ahead throughout the night, and she scored the game winning point for the Lions in the fourth set.