Volleyball secured a five-set victory over Dartmouth Friday before falling short the next day against Harvard during its weekend road trip.
It was another signature win for the Red (6-1, 2-1 Ivy) in its first match, dropping the first two sets but winning three straight to complete the reverse sweep against the Big Green (8-5, 1-2 Ivy).
On the offensive side, junior outside hitter Eliza Konvicka continued her impressive season with her second consecutive 22-kill performance.
It was senior middle blocker Camryn Carlo, though, who emerged as a true game changer. Carlo recorded a career-high 11 blocks, including two crucial stops in the fifth set. Her efforts fueled the Red’s late six-point run from down 14-10, helping them secure a hard-fought victory.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever been on a coaching staff that came back from 14-10 in the fifth [set],” said head coach Trudy Vande Berg. “We shut down the people we needed to, and [Dartmouth] got a little tentative as we started pushing and blocking. They ended up tipping a couple of balls, and we transitioned out of them well. I can honestly say, in my 25 years of coaching, I don’t remember anything like that.”
For the second straight week, the Red fell behind two sets to open the game. The Red struggled to find a rhythm offensively throughout, hitting at a .163 clip, which is tied for its lowest hitting percentage all season. Vande Berg said the Big Green’s defense got Cornell out of rhythm.
“They were just digging a ton of balls and sending it back to us,” Vande Berg said. “We were having a hard time finding ways to score. We missed some serves when we probably shouldn’t have and made some errors at some bad times. Dartmouth took advantage of that. They did a good job of scouting us, and we weren’t adjusting.”
However, the Red stormed back, opening the third set on a 9-1 run. The Red secured both the third and fourth sets due to good service and its ability to play more in system.
In the fifth set, Dartmouth came out strong, eventually pushing the Red to match point at 14-10.
“I called the timeout and said, ‘let’s control what we can control,’” Vande Berg said. “‘Let’s use our block. Let’s get them out of system.’ And fortunately, the odds were in our favor.”
Against Harvard (8-4, 3-0 Ivy), Cornell came out hot with a decisive first-set victory, which Vande Berg attributed to an excellent performance from Konvicka, who racked up a staggering 10 kills on 12 attempts in the opening set.
“It’s a little scary when you play that perfect in the first set,” Vande Berg said. “I don’t know that anybody can maintain that. Going into the second, we had to be ready for them to push back, and they did.”
As the match wore on, however, the Red looked outmatched, as they lost the next three straight sets. Freshman middle blocker Mackenzie Parsons stood out, recording a career-high 18 kills on a very efficient .500 hitting percentage. In the fourth set, Parsons had seven kills.
Despite the loss, Vande Berg said she liked the tenacity her team has shown in the first three games of Ivy League play.
“It’s really exciting to see the fight in this team,” Vande Berg said. “We don’t give up, and we really sent that message again. We were down 24-20 against Harvard, and we almost came back and won it. That’s something we haven’t had in the past three seasons. This year, there’s no lead that should be comfortable for the team we’re playing against.”
Next weekend, the Red will again go on the road to play Yale (8-3, 3-0 Ivy) at 7 p.m. on Friday and Brown (3-9, 0-3 Ivy) at 5 p.m. on Saturday. Both games can be streamed live on ESPN+.
Dylan Graff is a Sun Contributor and can be reached at [email protected].