At the net, Harvard gathered a total of eight blocks, five better than MIT. The Crimson held its opponent to a .180 kill percentage.

“[As the game progressed] middle blockers were doing a good job of locating the ball and clamping down on it, as [was] our defense behind the ball,” Gibbons said.

Middle blockers sophomore Celeb Zimmick and junior Kyle Rehkemper added five and three blocks respectively.

“We have been working a lot with our middle blockers,” Baise said. “They have been doing great... I thought our defense was excellent tonight.”

Harvard picked up seven service aces compared to three from the Engineers.

“The guys were hitting their serves hard tonight,” Baise said.

Baise pointed to team cohesion as an important factor differentiating the play on Tuesday from the losses over the weekend.

“We didn’t play well as a team [last weekend],” Baise said. “When we play well and communicate, we do well, which we did tonight. I think that was the main difference.”

Gibbons echoed his coach, sharing similar sentiments.

“I thought it was a good comeback from a rough weekend,” said Gibbons. “It was good for helping out the team’s confidence. MIT was definitely a team we needed to beat, and we did.”

The Crimson will have just one day to rest and recuperate before facing crosstown foe Emmanuel College on Thursday.

“Working on those blocks is going to be key,” said Madden. “Our serving was spot on tonight, which we were able to hold at a consistent level. We’re going to work on maintaining that consistency and momentum going forward.”