Following back-to-back losses at the Asics Tournament in Long Beach, Calif. this weekend, the Crimson (9-8) traveled to Malibu, Calif. and a matchup with No. 4 Pepperdine (15-4) in the hopes of ending its cross-country trip on a high note.

However, Harvard instead suffered second straight-set defeat in five days. Although the Crimson rallied to claim the game and avoid the shutout, the visitors could not avert an eventual 3-1 loss to the Waves.

“We had a few opportunities, and you need to take advantage,” Harvard coach Brian Baise said. “There’s not a lot of room for error. You make one mistake, and they jump on it.” 

Facing defeat in the third set, Harvard leveraged mistakes to its own benefit, using five errors by Pepperdine to rally back from a 16-10 deficit. The Crimson went on an 8-2 run to build a 20-19 lead, and despite a late surge from the Waves, the visitors hung on to win its only set, 27-25.

Three kills from co-captain DJ White and a pair of attacking errors from the opposition sealed the deal for Harvard, ensuring that the team would not be shut out.

“It was good seeing [that] we could take a set off of the fourth-ranked team in the nation,” Baise said. “It was good to see that lineup worked out pretty well.”

However, the Crimson didn’t always find the going so easy.

In the first set, Harvard built an 8-7 lead off six kills only to watch Pepperdine respond with an 8-1 run, which prompted a Crimson timeout. Although Harvard fought back within five, the Waves repelled the advance to claim the frame, 25-17. 

The Pepperdine defense proved to be the deciding factor in the set, as the Waves held Harvard to a .156 kill percentage and a total of 10 kills.

This logic was reversed in the fourth set, when Pepperdine’s offensive efficiency powered the hosts to victory. The Waves scored a game-high .452 kill percentage in that frame, which it won by six for the match victory.     

Even so, the Crimson kept this fourth game close until the final points. Harvard exchanged blows with Pepperdine until a 12-12 tie, at which point the Waves used a 6-1 run to take control. Three Crimson errors in a late-game 4-0 stretch punctuated the frame.   

Throughout the contest, Harvard debuted a new lineup that handed libero responsibilities to sophomore Casey White. After the match, Crimson players were encouraged by the results.

“We were just kind of mixing things up,” co-captain Caleb Zimmick said. “I think [that] going forward we’re going to work with that lineup and compete as well as we can.”

Early in the second set, the new strategy seemed like a recipe for success, as Harvard took an early 4-3 lead off three service errors and a kill. But Pepperdine regained the advantage soon after and expanded the margin to 25-21 at the end of the frame.

“They were a really good serving team,” junior outside hitter Branden Clemens said. “Each of the games we lost, we were neck and neck until they got a serving run that was three or four points in a row…. We would stay with them, but after the serving run, we couldn’t get rid of the deficit.”

Clemens paced the Crimson in kills with a total of 14. DJ White and freshman middle blocker Brad Gretsch followed with 13 apiece.

Much of Harvard’s offense came during the comeback third set, when the Crimson posted its strongest offensive performance of the night. Harvard finished with 15 kills on a .321 kill percentage in that section. Meanwhile, the Waves racked up eight mistakes and a .200 hitting efficiency.  

“It’s great seeing the guys bounce back,” Baise said. “I thought we’ve always been pretty resilient this year. If we’ve had a bad match, we’ve come back the next night or the next weekend and done better…[and] that was the case.”