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The Harvard women’s volleyball team (4-2, 0-0 Ivy) continued invitational season this week at the Art Carmichael Invitational, hosted at the University of Rhode Island. The Crimson lost its first two matches against Rhode Island (4-6, 0-0 A10) and Stony Brook (7-2, 0-0 CAA) but recovered to win its final match against Northern Illinois (2-6, 0-0 MAC).

Harvard 2, Rhode Island 3

For the third match in a row, the Crimson went the distance, playing five tightly contested sets. However, for the first time this season, Harvard came up short as it dropped the decisive set to the Rhode Island Rams.

A tight first set foreshadowed what was to come in the rest of the match, as the set stayed tight the entire way before the Rams pulled away at the end. Neither team was able to gain more than a three point advantage until past the halfway point of the set. At this point, the Rams were able to create some distance between themselves and the Crimson. Ultimately, URI was able to secure a 25-20 victory in the first set.

The second set had a nearly identical ending to the first set. Harvard came out hot early in the second set, storming out to a 7-3 lead and maintaining that lead for the next few points. URI then settled into a groove that defined the set. Multiple runs for the Rams saw the team first take the lead, then extend upon that lead until URI coasted to a 25-19 second set win.

For the second match in a row, Harvard found itself down 0-2 after the second set. In the team’s last bout against UNH, narrow victories in the third and fourth sets allowed the Crimson to complete the comeback in the fifth set. This match appeared destined for a similar outcome, as Harvard blitzed the Rams early in the third set with a 4-0 run in order to take a slight lead. The dream seemed short lived, though, when URI returned with a run of its own to take the lead and draw within striking distance of a victory. That is as close as the Rams would get for now, though, as the Crimson battened the hatches and reeled off five straight kills to snatch a 25-23 third set from the jaws of defeat.

In a season so far defined by Harvard’s magical ability to succeed in the face of adversity, the fourth set marked the Crimson’s most astounding Houdini impersonation yet. Hope seemed thin when URI jumped out to a 17-10 lead, yet a 6-0 Harvard run saw the Crimson disappear from danger. Harvard once again seemed destined for doom, though, when another Rams run locked the Crimson in the cage of triple match point. Harvard turned out to have a key hidden up its sleeve though in the form of a 5-0 run to win the set 26-24 and force a decisive fifth set — an impressive level of clutchness.

The Crimson’s magic ran out in the fifth set, however, as an 8-4 run by URI handed Harvard its first loss of the young season. The 15-11 loss in the set moved the Crimson to 2-1 in fifth sets this season.

The Rams separated from Harvard in the match by tripling the Crimson’s service ace output (15-5) as well as recording three more blocks and two fewer errors. Harvard continued to see success with kills, as the Crimson logged five more kills than URI, including a game-high 17 from junior outside hitter Peyton Hollis and double digit tallies from senior outside hitter Corinne Furey and sophomore middle blocker Ryleigh Patterson.

Harvard 0, Stony Brook 3

Looking to get back on track after Thursday’s first loss of the season, Harvard instead ran into a buzzsaw in the form of Stony Brook (7-2, 0-0 CAA). While both teams entered the game with only one blemish on their record, the Seawolves proved to be further along at this point in the season, securing a dominant 3-0 victory.

The early parts of the first set were all Crimson, as Harvard maintained a lead for much of the first set, but a late 9-2 run, including six of the last seven points, stole the set for the Seawolves. First sets have plagued Harvard all season, as this marked the fourth straight first set loss for the team.

Consistently dropping the first set has handicapped the Crimson early in this season, as has Harvard’s struggles in the second set. For the third straight match, the Crimson also dropped the second set. A back and forth set early on turned into a dominant set for the Seawolves. Stony Brook used its powerful offense to seize the second set 25-16. Harvard’s 16 points were the second fewest it has put up in a full set this season, only ahead of the 10 put up in the first set against UNH. The nine point loss was also the second largest loss in a set this season, once again beaten only by the first set against the Wildcats.

Entering the part of the match that the Crimson have dominated this year, hoping to once again push the match to five sets, the outlook was grim for Harvard early on in the set. The Seawolves pounced early to take a commanding 9-3 lead. Never a team to give up, the Crimson battled back to trail 18-20 late in the set. Harvard would not make it past 18 points though, as a 5-0 run from Stony Brook closed out the set and the match.

The Seawolves dominated nearly every facet of the match. Stony Brook nearly doubled the Crimson in kills and hitting percentage. Harvard’s .121 hitting percentage was nearly a tenth of a point lower than any other match this season. The Crimson lost the service aces battle 7-1 as the team has yet to find meaningful success from the service line this year. The lone ace for Harvard came from senior setter Rocky Aguirre.

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Harvard 3, Northern Illinois 1

The squad had little time to regroup before its last match of the invitational, a showdown against Northern Illinois. Fortunately for Harvard, the Huskies entered the game with a 1-5 record on the season and were still reeling from a demoralizing loss to URI in their first game of the tournament. In that contest, the Huskies came within one point of victory, in the deciding fifth set, six separate times; each time the Rams clawed their way back.

After a tight opening exchange of points, the Crimson opened up a three-point lead in the crunch time of the first set, establishing a 19-16 edge; Furey and junior outside hitter Brynne Faltinsky led the way, with four and six kills in the set, respectively. The Huskies hung around though, erasing that lead and another Crimson lead at 24-22. But, perhaps sensing the potential sweep, the Crimson found a way to end its streak of losing match-openers. Furey’s final kill of the set sealed the 1-0 lead for Harvard, by a score of 27-25.

Northern Illinois came bursting out of the gate in the second, winning five of the six first points to stake out an early 5-1 lead. Methodically, the Crimson chipped away at that lead, using a series of errors by Huskies’ outside hitter Nikolette Nedic, along with kills from Faltinsky and Hollis, to level the playing field. The set came down to the wire again, but the Crimson once again dug deep: at 24 all, Faltinsky struck two consecutive kills, then ceded the stage to Hollis, who closed the set 26-24 with a kill of her own.

The Crimson couldn’t quite complete the victory in straight sets, dropping a sloppy third set 25-23, in part due to a streak of five consecutive errors in the middle of the set. Luckily, the Huskies couldn’t take advantage of its newfound opportunity in the fourth set. In a fitting finish to an invitational which featured inconsistent play from both teams on the court, back-to-back errors by senior Charli Atiemo and Nedic handed the Crimson a silver lining for the weekend, a 25-22 triumph in the fourth and the victory.

In an encouraging sign for the Crimson, the win featured a return to the offensive onslaught that has mostly characterized its season so far, apart from the aberrant game against Stony Brook. The 14.3 team kills per set it posted against the Huskies far outpaced its average of 8.3 kills per set versus the Seawolves, and put the offense back in line with its performance at the Harvard Invitational the week before.

Looking ahead, the Crimson will soon embark on its last road trip before conference play begins in earnest, when it travels to the Delaware State Tournament later this week. The tournament represents a chance to build back confidence against weaker competition: the combined record of the three teams the Crimson will play (Delaware State, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and George Washington) is 13-19, with the Revolutionaries leading the pack with a 7-3 record thus far.

The Crimson will head south to Dover to square off against Delaware State this Friday, September 20 at 7:00 pm.

—Staff writer Reed Trimble can be reached at reed.trimble@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Jack Silvers can be reached at jack.silvers@thecrimson.com.