November 18, 2002

Volleyball Finishes With Split

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The women’s volleyball team finished its season this weekend with a split and said goodbye to its seniors.

On Friday, the Red (14-12, 6-8 Ivy) had the opportunity to knock Harvard (14-11, 10-4) out of contention for a share of the Ivy title, but the Crimson offense proved too potent for the home team.

Led by outside hitter Kaego Ogbechie’s 18 kills and 13 digs, Harvard needed four close games to shut down the Red, 30-24, 28-30, 30-27, and 30-24.

The Crimson barely outhit the Red .226-.214, but benefited from errors Cornell committed in the early rounds when it played a relatively clean game. The Red did shine through in blocks, an area it has concentrated on throughout the entire season. Cornell had nine team blocks and 66 digs while Harvard had seven and 58, respectively.

The Red also had more service aces (nine) than the Crimson (five).

Playing in her second to last game with Cornell, senior outside hitter Angela Barbera continued her mastery with 15 kills and seven digs on .481 hitting. Junior outside hitter Debbie Quibell also dominated with 18 kills, 13 digs and two service aces. The kills were enough to edge out second-place Becky Merchant on the all-time career kills list.

Junior middle blocker Ashely Stover also had a fine match with 11 kills while sophomore outside hitter Kathryn Conrad had 16 digs. Freshman Whitney Fair set the table and notched 38 assists with 13 digs.

Unfortunately for Harvard, its hopes of an Ivy title were dashed the same night it earned the victory over Cornell as Penn (21-4, 12-1) won its match over Brown (10-15, 6-7).