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Not every weekend is built equally over the course of a season, and the Harvard women’s volleyball team (3-12, 2-5 Ivy) faced its toughest back-to-back of the season this weekend. Every road trip in the Ivy League proves challenging, but the challenge is escalated when facing two of the three best teams in the conference.

The Crimson opened the weekend with a 0-3 loss to the Brown Bears (10-6, 5-2) before going to New Haven, Conn. to face the Yale Bulldogs (9-6, 5-2) in the volleyball edition of “The Game”. But just like the Harvard football team in the past three seasons, the Crimson went 0-3, getting swept again.

Harvard 0 Brown 3

Brown took the lead on the first point of the game and got comfortable in that position as the Bears only trailed for two points over the course of the match. Harvard flexed its strength at the net to start the match. Three of the Crimson’s first four points came from rejections at the net. Sophomore middle Taylor Larkin, the engine that drives Harvard’s ferocious front, combined with junior outside Ali Farquhar for the third block.

The Crimson hung close early as two Farquhar kills and two Brown service errors contributed to cutting the Bear lead to one. Then, the mauling began. After a kill by sophomore middle Bennett Trubey made the score 12-14 in favor of Brown, the Bears scored nine unanswered points to pull away.

Harvard eventually steadied the ship, but it proved too late as Brown took the first set 25-15.

The second set started with an ace by Brown. The Bears dominated the service line on the day, logging 11 aces and preventing any Harvard aces.

The Crimson claimed its only leads of the match early in this set. The three-headed outside attack of Farquhar, freshman Sophia Rossi, and senior Brynne Faltinsky each buried a kill to seize a 4-3 lead. After a kill by Brown tied the set, another Rossi kill gave Harvard its second, and final, lead of the game.

The Bears scored from the service line in the second set as five serves found hardwood for aces. Factoring in the Crimson’s two service errors compared to Brown’s one, the Bears won 7-1 from the service line in the set.

The difference from the service line proved decisive in the closest set of the match. Throughout the set, Brown extended its lead before Harvard trimmed it back down. The Crimson could get close but never caught the Bears and lost the set 20-25.

Harvard fought to stay alive early in the set before Brown overpowered the Crimson in the second half of the set.

The Crimson scored in unorthodox ways early with Larkin and her fellow middle, junior Ryleigh Patterson, contributing three kills. These kills and Bear errors kept the set close at 7-8.

Brown erupted from here for their second largest run of the day to extend the lead to 14-7. The Bears barely slowed down from there and strung together points throughout the set. Consecutive kills by junior outside Ally Panzloff ended the set and match in favor of Brown, 25-12.

Harvard 0 Yale 3

“The Game” is the pinnacle of Harvard regular season competition nearly regardless of the sport. In this edition, the Crimson are perennially the underdogs against the powerhouse Bulldogs. This year was no different as Yale entered the game in contention for an Ivy League regular season championship while Harvard fought to make the tournament.

Harvard dug itself a hole early, going down 0-3 and 4-8 early. Just as the Crimson clawed back into the match again, the Bulldogs exploded for a 15-8 lead off of sloppy Harvard errors.

The Crimson cleaned up its play to once again make the match competitive. A Rossi kill ended the Yale surge, and an ace by freshman outside and service specialist Bridgette Egan started the Harvard comeback. Farquhar added two kills and Larkin added three and the Crimson were suddenly down only 16-18.

Unfortunately for Harvard, the error bug came back late in the set and allowed the Bulldogs to pull away late and win the set 25-21.

The second set followed the tenor of the first as the Crimson fell in a hole early and played chase throughout the set. Yale built up a four point lead early in the set and maintained it for the majority.

The Bulldogs played cleaner volleyball in the second set for the victory, feasting on ten Harvard errors. When the Crimson stayed clean, the set was competitive but too many errors led to a 21-25 set loss.

Patterson, who ended the second set hot with three kills in four points, stayed hot and scored a kill on the first point of the third set. Few positive things happened from there for Harvard as Yale ran away with the third set.

From a 4-4 tie, the Bulldogs scored 21 of the final 27 points to win the set 25-10.

The loss ends Harvard’s first trip through the Ivy League this season. Five of the Crimson’s first seven Ivy League games were on the road. This made life difficult for Harvard. The second time through has five home games and provides more opportunities for the Crimson to pick up key wins in the search to return to the Ivy League tournament.

Harvard returns to action next weekend with a standalone game against Dartmouth (5-12, 2-5) at home. The Crimson won its first matchup against the Big Green in 3-0 fashion.

—Staff writer Reed M. Trimble can be reached at reed.trimble@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @ReedTrimble1.