The Harvard women’s volleyball team came back after dropping both contests last weekend with a sweep at home at the Malkin Athletic Center. After having lost two Ivy League games last week against Brown and Yale, this weekend’s sweep sent the team to second place in the Ancient Eight.
The Crimson (8-6, 3-2 Ivy) defeated Columbia (4-10, 2-3 Ivy) in three straight sets and Cornell (5-9, 2-3 Ivy) in four.
“We had a great week in practice, we really stepped it up to prepare for this week’s games,” Harvard coach Jennifer Weiss said.
HARVARD 3, COLUMBIA 0
The Harvard squad entered Saturday’s match against the Lions coming off a strong week of practice and a win Friday.
“I’m really proud of us because we worked really hard this week after coming off of two losses last weekend,” freshman Corinne Bain said. “Our practices were very high intensity so coming off this week I had the confidence that we worked to prove ourselves.”
The Crimson tallied multiple season records during the Columbia game. Bain had three service aces that put her fifth on the Harvard single season list. Junior co-captain Kristen Casey added to her season record with 21 digs, and junior middle blocker Caroline Walters had another 11-kill day.
“I think we felt good about this weekend,” Casey said. “We wanted to win in dominating style and I think that’s what we did by handling it in four [Friday] and three [Saturday].”
The Crimson had a dominant first set, winning 25-16. While the next set had Harvard trailing as Columbia took control with a winning streak, the Crimson rallied and fought back to win the second set, 25-21.
The Harvard squad refocused its momentum in the team huddles during the game.
“We got down in the second game and Columbia had a run,” said Casey. “I think we are getting so much better at staying calm in those moments and staying confident and getting our own run.”
The Lions could not psych the Crimson out as Harvard tallied 47 kills to Columbia’s 29.
“Our game plan is to always think about us and not to worry about what the other team is doing,” Weiss said. “Once we did that we play so much better as a team.”
HARVARD 3, CORNELL 1
Friday night, Harvard tallied its third consecutive win against Cornell.
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