Volleyball fell to Harvard in three sets Friday before coming back strong the next day to beat Dartmouth in four sets.
In what has become a very unpredictable and tight Ivy League this year, every game is critical for the Red (12-7, 6-4 Ivy). Losing to Harvard (10-9, 5-5 Ivy) in a largely one-sided match was disappointing for the team. However, the rebound against Dartmouth (10-10, 3-7 Ivy) kept the Red in the hunt, highlighting the group’s resilience.
In no moment was this more apparent than in the second set against Dartmouth on Saturday. Down 24-23, junior outside hitter Eliza Konvicka tipped the ball over two Dartmouth blockers to keep the rally alive. Then, freshman middle blocker Mackenzie Parsons hammered a shot into the court, putting the Red in the lead. Finally, sophomore libero Sarita Pomar delivered a clutch ace, stealing the set away from the Big Green.
“We had to win this match. That’s the difference between last year’s team and this year’s team. We completely flipped and did a 180 tonight,” said head coach Trudy Vande Berg. “We were more focused on the scouting report. We were serving tougher. We were digging balls. We were in the right spot, so I was really proud of them and how they came back.”
While the Red would drop the third set, it would quickly rebound and easily take the fourth set, 25-11.
The game against Harvard on Friday, however, was a different story.
““It wasn’t even anything Harvard was doing,” Vande Berg said. “We just did not play well, and it happens. It was really disappointing how we came out. Everybody was disappointed.”
The Red struggled to find its rhythm and had many self-imposed errors, ultimately resulting in a decisive three-set victory for the Crimson.
“We talked about it a little after, refocused and said, ‘We can’t let this happen again.’ We don’t want to feel like this in the locker room again,” Vande Berg said.
While this weekend’s results did little to clarify where the third-place Red truly sits in the highly contested conference, upcoming games against fifth-place Penn (10-9, 4-6 Ivy) and second-place Princeton (9-10, 7-2 Ivy) certainly will. It is not an understatement to say that this is the most important weekend of volleyball the Red have played up to this point.
“We play Princeton first,” Vande Berg said. “We’re not going to stop [Kamryn] Chaney, the big outside [hitter], but we need to do a better job of containing her. She’s like Michael Jordan. She’s going to score points, and there’s not much you can do about it, but we can’t let her just go up and hit wherever she wants to.”
No matter the result in that game, though, Vande Berg said the team must be able to turn around and refocus in order to beat Penn.
“And then Penn at home is a really good team. They’re scrappy — they’re so opposite the team Princeton is,” Vande Berg said. “We have to beat Penn. We have to make sure that we can flip it that next day and continue. It’s a big weekend.”
Next weekend, the Red will again go on the road to play Princeton at 7 p.m. on Friday and Penn 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].