{shortcode-80e465824714f78443303b021cf89a45db218ca5}

After a contested five-set loss to Dartmouth in its Ivy League opener on Friday, the Harvard women’s volleyball team looks to keep its Ivy League title hopes alive heading into a crucial two-game home swing against Penn and Princeton this weekend at the Malkin Athletic Center.

The Crimson (4-7, 0-1 Ivy) is off to a slow start following a season in which the squad held a share of the Ivy League title and was one win away from qualifying for the NCAA tournament before losing to Yale in a tiebreaking one-game playoff. This early loss to Dartmouth (4-6, 1-0) does not portend well for the Crimson, but the team is still focused on bringing home the Ivy League title again.

“The loss last weekend hasn’t changed a single thing,” senior libero Sindhu Vegesena said. “[Junior setter] Corie [Bain] and I talked about it a lot and she put it best, ‘Even if we won, the pressure and our drive to win the rest of our games would still be the same.’ If anything, it’s shown that the upperclassmen need to step up.”

But in a conference in which the champion has not lost more than two league matches in each of the last eight years, Harvard finds itself in an unenviable spot, likely needing to win at least 12 of its next 13 games to have a chance at repeating their title.

Consequently, this weekend’s games have a potentially major impact for the Crimson, which plays its next four games at home before taking a five-game road trip that could decide the season.

The homestand, which Harvard likely will have to sweep to maintain in contention for the title, ends with the squad’s first rematch with the Bulldogs since the Crimson was swept in the one-game, deciding playoff a year ago.

However, the Cambridge squad kicks off the opening leg of the homestand with a Friday night match upagainst Princeton (5-5, 0-1). Harvard gave up just two sets to the Tigers in 2014 en route to sweeping the season series, including a 3-0 victory at home in mid-October.

In 2014, the Tigers are led by junior outside hitter Cara Mattaliano, who burst onto the scene as a freshman in 2013 to earn first-team All-Ivy League honors after ranking second in the conference in kills. Mattaliano has accrued 106 kills and 98 digs on the season, while averaging 2.94 kills per set and 2.72 digs per set.

Overall, the team has been playing better recently after sustaining some early season woes, but was plagued by late game lapses in its most recent loss.

Harvard will then go on to face Penn (7-6, 1-0) in its final game of the weekend. Coming off of a three-game win streak—including a decisive 3-1 win over the Tigers in their first Ancient Eight matchup of the season—the Quakers look to continue that momentum against the Crimson on Saturday.

The team will look to ride the experience of co-captain outside hitter Alexis Genske, who thrived last November against Harvard, when she recorded a career-high 22 kills in a five-set Quaker loss. She guided Penn to its victory against Princeton last weekend with 14 kills and 14 digs and leads the team with 148 kills on the season.

The Crimson, like Penn and Princeton, has been improving as of late. After a streak of five straight losses in the early parts of the season, Harvard has won three of their last five games with its two losses coming in close five-setters, the last a 3-2 loss to Boston College.

After the first few games of the year, the Crimson’s relatively young roster has begun to acclimate to the challenges of Ivy League play, including freshman middle blocker Christina Cornelius.

“Christina is obviously an impact player in so many ways,” co-captain Hannah Schmidt said. “She’s such a gamer and will put the ball down decisively when you need her to. We’ve been consistently forcing sets to her to utilize her as much as possible, and she’s doing a great job of shouldering that role.”

After last week’s loss, each conference game has a heightened importance. The matches against Princeton and Penn will be key indicators of whether the Crimson can build off of its young roster and repeat its successes of a year ago.

“We know that every single Ivy League game is going to be a hard fought battle and now we know to expect teams to play their best games against us,” Schmidt said. “Nothing that happened last year should influence the team we are this year on the court.”