“We were just making too many errors in the second,” Baise explained. “It’s really hard to win a volleyball game when you help the other team that much. We do this every day in practice, and we understand what it takes, so we were able to get a little better in the next two games.”

Returning to the floor for the third set, Harvard pushed Rivier’s kill percentage below zero to -.111. The Crimson jumped to an early advantage off attack errors from the Raiders, coming to lead, 10-3.

While Rivier trailed by as much as 12 in the middle of the stanza and it closed out just seven points under Harvard, 25-18.

“We talked in between the games, told ourselves we needed to focus,” Clemens said. “Then we collected ourselves and knew what we had to do, and we just cleaned ourselves up.”

The Raiders persisted through the fourth and final set, trading points and staying within five until a kill off Zimmick, handed off from senior setter Rob Lothman, took the Crimson to top its opponents, 19-14.

Eight more rallies, five of which were served off Zimmick, let Harvard close the contest, 25-16.

Lothman dominated his role at the net, doling out 46 of the 51 assists for the night.

“We’ll take the win,” Baise said. “I didn’t think we played particularly well. We were pretty sloppy in almost every part of the game. But these guys have shown that they’re finding a way to win, which is great, but we still have a lot to work on.”

The Crimson squad has lost just six games at the MAC since 2011 and the win was the third successful home opener for Harvard.

“We just need to stay focused and make sure that we don’t mentally get down on ourselves like we did,” Clemens said. “We just need to stay positive and make sure that we do what we need to be doing on our side of the court. The results will come from there.”

—Staff writer Cordelia F. Mendez can be reached at cordeliamendez@college.harvard.edu. Follow her @crimsoncordelia.