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After three weeks of highs and lows against non-conference opponents, Harvard (6-4, 1-0 Ivy) put it all together in its first Ivy League contest of the season. The Malkin Athletic Center gymnasium was filled with a sizable crowd on Friday night as the Crimson took on Dartmouth (7-4, 0-1 Ivy).

Harvard was ready for this moment after building on numerous lessons learned from the non-conference season according to sophomore setter Amelie Lima.

“Playing conference [games] differs greatly from pre-season games,” Lima said. “However, being able to play a multitude of teams that we would never usually play is quite fun, not only to play out of our range but also to prepare us for the conference season. [They] keep us on our toes.”

Harvard 3, Dartmouth 1

After struggling early in the first set throughout tournament season, Harvard came out swinging on Friday night. The Crimson scored first then traded the next few points with the Big Green. Harvard then surged out to a 7-2 lead behind a mix of strong offense and domination at the net by the Crimson’s blockers. Throughout the first set Harvard showed a comfort under its own ceiling by placing a roof over the net for Dartmouth. The Big Green was made quite small by a Crimson front line that regularly rejected any kills attempted by Dartmouth. Rarely did the Big Green get a clean shot off, and kills that did make it past the Harvard middle were heavily influenced and usually deadened by the hands of multiple Crimson blockers.

Among those Harvard blockers was junior outside hitter Brynne Faltinsky. Faltinksy turned in a truly special day for the Crimson that started with her first kill which extended the Harvard lead to 10-4. It was clear from that kill that Faltinsky had a different juice on her swing in the match than everyone else. Unlike the Crimson front line which affected every swing by Dartmouth, the Big Green middle was stymied by Harvard’s attack and seemed lost and unable to effect any kills by the Crimson. Unaffected by blockers, Harvard’s hitters were able to unload on the volleyball as Dartmouth’s setters were left standing on the tracks as the train was coming through. And time and time again, that train was Faltinsky.

The Crimson lead held around five for a stretch before swelling to as many as eight in the later parts of the first set. Harvard ended the set with a 25-18 victory that felt like a much wider margin.

The second set was a back and forth affair early on before turning into another Crimson rout in the second half. Senior outside hitter Corinne Furrey had a strong start to the set as she recorded three kills and a block in Harvard’s first 12 points of the set. The Big Green kept pace with the Crimson up to that point, but then Harvard turned it up a notch and went on a 6-1 run. That run would prove enough as the Crimson extended the lead to nine before winning the set 25-17.

After being all Harvard for the first two sets, Dartmouth refused to go quietly into the night in set three. An early run from the Big Green got the modest group of Dartmouth fans out of their seats. Before this point these Dartmouth fans had been forced to sit on their hands as the large Harvard showing, including contingencies from the men’s and women’s basketball teams as well as the men’s volleyball team, cheered on the rout. With its first taste of momentum of the match, the Big Green was able to stave off a response run from the Crimson and maintain a slim lead throughout the set. A late charge by Harvard tied the match at 22. A service error following a pause in play by the Crimson gave Dartmouth the edge it needed to pull off the 25-23 set victory.

Revitalized by a strong third set, the Big Green looked to stay on the attack early in the fourth set. Dartmouth jumped out to an early 5-2 lead in the set sparked by three errors from Harvard. The Crimson chipped away at and erased that lead over the next few points but another run gave the Big Green an 11-7 lead almost halfway through the set. Harvard once again responded as the Crimson stayed close before launching a 4-0 rebuttal run to tie up the set at 15. The set turned into a seesaw affair from there as the teams traded points and the lead up to a 23-23 tie late in the set. In a similar spot as the last set, Dartmouth looked to once again take a close set from Harvard as the Big Green scored first to take a 24-23 advantage. The Crimson once again showed its trademark fight, however, as kills from Faltinsky and sophomore outside hitter Ali Farquhar gave Harvard set and match point. In a fitting end to the match, the Crimson got one more block in as freshman middle blocker Bennett Trubey rejected one last Dartmouth advance.

That last block by Trubey capped off an astounding day at the net for the Harvard defense. The Crimson recorded 20 team blocks in the match. This effort was led by the young Trubey who paced both teams with 10 total blocks including nine assisted and one solo. Sophomore middle blocker Ryleigh Patterson also had a banner day as she tallied nine blocks with five being assisted and four being solo. Blocks in volleyball are tallied similar to sacks in football with assisted blocks acting as half a block and solo blocks counting as one. Harvard recorded 30 assisted blocks and five solo which leads to the previously mentioned 20 team blocks.

All of the blocks also attributed to another remarkable statistic, the Crimson held the Big Green to a miniscule .077 hitting percentage. Conversely, Harvard hit at .201% for the match. The Crimson started the match hitting at a remarkable .385% but slowly faded throughout the match. This falloff was reflected in the team’s error numbers which rose from set to set.

The key takeaway from this match was growth. A team that succumbed to a reverse sweep, winning the first two sets then losing the next three, earlier this year and struggled with reverse sweeps last season showed growth by overcoming adversity and finishing a tightly contested set and match. This sentiment was echoed by Lima.

“One lesson we have all learned is that volleyball is not only a dynamic physical game but also a mental game. We can turn the game, or set, around and win. Which is precisely what we did against Dartmouth in the fourth set,” the junior noted.

Harvard’s win paralleled the start of last season’s Ivy League slate when the Crimson also started conference play with a 3-1 victory over Dartmouth. Harvard gets back in action at home against Columbia (3-7, 0-1 Ivy) next Friday at 7:00pm.

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