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This past weekend, Harvard women’s volleyball returned from a successful New York road trip with two more wins under its belt against Cornell and Columbia, starting off the final three weeks of its 2022 season strong. While the Crimson had a slow start to this year’s season, with this weekend marking its first back-to-back wins, senior captain Bella Almanza is hopeful for the team’s future in the upcoming conference matches.
Saturday’s match against Columbia (4-12, 1-6 Ivy League) started off shaky, leaving the Crimson (4-11, 3-4) playing a strategic game of catch up to overcome Columbia’s six point lead. Almanza set the tone for the rest of the game within the first rally, earning the first point for the Crimson with an ace (one of two for the rising senior). Harvard soon clawed its way to a comeback, tying the score at 22 before ultimately crossing the 25-point finish line first with Columbia hot on their heels, just two points behind. Almanza’s ace was the first of many for the Crimson.
“Coming into these Cornell and Columbia games, we emphasized having a really strong week of practice, working on being a consistent team, making sure we’re doing our jobs, holding each other accountable, and keeping our energy level consistent rather than being up and down, and I think that helped us during these games to keep our composure,” Almanza said.
Almanza’s teammates soon followed her lead, with junior hitter Olivia Cooper and sophomore libero Lindsay Zhang scoring an ace each while rising sophomore libero Teia Piette scored a career-high of four aces in the first set, simultaneously breaking her past record and scoring half of Harvard’s aces throughout the entire match.
“Going into Cornell and Columbia, we knew these were must win matches for us to keep us in contention for the tournament,” said Cooper, another standout from both games this weekend who recorded 11 kills against the Lions. “We came in with a new intensity and worked really hard all week to come out as our best. We’ve had a bunch of injuries, so our lineup was shifting around even coming into Friday, and I’m really proud of the grit and determination we showed this weekend to pull out these two wins against formidable teams.”
The Crimson and Lions were neck-and-neck throughout the second set, which featured six lead changes before Harvard pulled ahead and finalized a 25-22 scoreline.
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“Brown, Yale, and Princeton — we all faced early on in the season, and those are three big teams in the Ivy League, so we knew those were going to be tough matches,” said Almanza when asked what the team did differently between the last three games and the ones against the Big Red and the Lions. “After them, going into the Cornell-Columbia weekend, we had a fire lit under us and knew we had to hunker down and focus in to get business done and to make the tournament. So I’m really proud of us for having a good week of practice and getting the job done this past weekend.”
Columbia, in an attempt to defend its home turf, managed a seven point lead to wrap up the third set, 25-18, before Harvard ultimately emerged victorious, taking both the fourth set, 29-27, and the match. Harvard’s kill streak was spread across multiple players, with four women notching ten or more kills. First-year hitter Brynne Faltinsky matched her record from Friday’s game against Cornell with thirteen before promptly being named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week that following Monday.
“[Faltinsky] stepped up in a big way, both on serve receive and offense," Cooper said. "Our passing and serving this weekend is what allowed us to have this success, and I’m just so proud of this team!”
Faltinsky’s kill points were followed by Almanza and Cooper, who each scored 11, and junior hitter Katie Vorhies added ten.
“I think we’ve also been very motivated by the saying, play for each other,” Cooper said following the win. “Even when we were tired, we made it a goal to push through and play for each other, which I really think lends to our team culture.”
Both Almanza and Cooper mentioned the importance of team chemistry in the success of this past weekend.
“We all genuinely love each other, I think other people see it, the coaches have seen it, the chemistry on this particular team, both last year and this year is really strong,” Almanza said. “We really care about each other as friends and family. We have a really good connection on and off the court. You can see it on the court because we have a lot of trust and faith in each other as teammates and as friends.”
Harvard will get a second chance against every Ivy over the next three weeks, starting with the Big Green this Friday.
“I love this team so much, and our chemistry is so special,” Cooper said. “There’s nothing quite like getting to play everyday with your very best friends. I’m really proud of how we’ve adapted and overcome the obstacles we’ve faced this season, and am super excited to face Dartmouth again this weekend.”
With just seven games left in the season to qualify for the Ivy League Championship Tournament, Harvard will be taking its chemistry to New Hampshire to kick off the second half of the regular season.
