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After two straight winless weekends, the Harvard women’s volleyball team (9-8, 4-4 Ivy) got back on track taking down Dartmouth (9-9, 2-6 Ivy) 3-1 on the road. This was the second victory for the Crimson over the Big Green this season as Harvard won the previous matchup at home also in 3-1 fashion. The Crimson have now won four straight over Dartmouth, having not lost to its rivals from Hanover since 2022. Four straight victories makes the rivalry between the two New England schools Harvard’s longest active win-streak in Ivy League play; though, the Crimson have a chance to match it against Columbia (3-14, 0-8 Ivy) this weekend, who Harvard has not dropped as much as a set to in three consecutive matches.
Harvard 3, Dartmouth 1
The Crimson showed growth from the onset of the match by taking five of the first seven points. Strong play by the whole team put pressure on the Big Green and forced multiple errors by Dartmouth. The opening of the first set was highlighted by strong play from junior outside hitter Peyton Hollis. Hollis bombarded on the Big Green defense with kills for three of Harvard’s first ten points. Dartmouth crept back into the set through more efficient play before a 3-0 run by the Crimson recreated some distance. That distance helped Harvard survive a 4-1 Big Green run that shrunk the Crimson lead to one. Once again though, Harvard stretched the lead out to four before Dartmouth launched a run of its own to even up the score at 22. The Crimson would get the last laugh, however, as two kills by sophomore middle blocker Ryleigh Patterson and another kill by junior outside hitter Brynne Faltinsky snatched a 25-22 first set for Harvard.
Set two started off with the Big Green dealing the first blow, running out to an 8-4 lead early. Sloppy play from the Crimson contributed four of the eight points. From there, Harvard battened down the hatches and held the deficit to four up to the 14-10 mark. Then the Crimson launched a counterattack, bursting out to a 6-0 run followed by only a brief pause before continuing with a 4-1 spurt to secure a 20-17 lead. Desperate to avoid a 2-0 hole, Dartmouth bowed up to tie the set at 20-20. In the end, the Harvard squad stepped up in the biggest moments and clinched the set 25-22.
Just as in the first match between these Ancient Eight rivals, the Crimson took the first two sets, and just like that first match, the Big Green would claim the third. In the first go-around, Dartmouth won a nail-biter to prevent the sweep. This time, the Big Green hung close with Harvard for half of the set before surging to a decisive defense of its homecourt. After playing clean volleyball in the first two sets, errors plagued the Crimson throughout the third, with the Crimson reverting back to its old yip with five service blunders. These errors allowed Dartmouth to coast to a 25-19 set win.
Errors continued to hurt Harvard early in the fourth set, allowing the Big Green to gain a slight 7-5 advantage in the early stages. Sharper play by the Crimson helped the team play even with Dartmouth for a stretch before seizing a 13-10 lead with a 4-0 outburst. The two squads exchanged points for a period before Harvard turned up the pressure and blew the Big Green off its own court to end the set. From the 17-15 mark, the Crimson exchanged one Dartmouth point for two to three of its own ultimately ending the set and match with a 25-18 score, the most decisive of the match.
Although Harvard still suffered bouts of errors, its play was much cleaner this game than during its losing streak. The squad committed only 16 errors over the four set match which was 12 fewer than the Big Green and nine fewer than the team committed in the first match of these Ancient Eighters.
While Faltinsky had a very strong performance, 18 kills at 37.8% and three blocks, the most notable performance came from senior libero Lindsey Zhang who recorded a game-high 21 digs. Zhang crossed the 1,000 career digs milestone with her 13th dig of the night.
“Reaching 1,000 digs felt amazing,” Zhang said. “I had no idea that I would hit it during this game. When I walked into the locker room, everyone started cheering, jumping, recording, and hugging me–I had no idea what was happening! I looked up and saw a sweet message written on the whiteboard. The milestone was incredibly rewarding, and I felt so lucky and grateful for this program.”
Harvard will look to carry the momentum from this match into its play next weekend when it travels to New York for the Empire State doubleheader against Cornell and Columbia. The Crimson defeated both of these foes in the first go around, so will be looking for another straight-sweeep. The road trip starts on Friday at 7:00 p.m. at Cornell (11-6, 5-3 Ivy), and the match will also be aired on ESPN+.
—Staff writer Reed Trimble can be reached at reed.trimble@thecrimson.com
