MIT falls to Harvard, 3-1

Men’s Volleyball put up a tough fight vs. the Crimson

By Shri Ganeshram Feb. 7, 2012

4640 mvolleyball 2 — Alexander C. Klein ’15 serves for MIT in Saturday’s game against Harvard.
Jessica Liu—The Tech

4644 mvolleyball 1 — The Men’s Volleyball team prepares to play a point in Saturday’s game against Harvard. Despite starting strong, the Engineers lost to the Crimson last week by 3-1.
Jessica Liu—The Tech

4645 mvolleyball 3 — Alexander C. Klein ’15 spikes the ball during Saturday’s men’s volleyball game against Harvard. The Engineers won the first set 15-25, but lost 3-1 to Harvard overall in the Rockwell Cage.
Jessica Liu—The Tech

The MIT Men’s Volleyball team, ranked sixth nationally, fell to Harvard last week in a close game, 3-1.

MIT started the game well, leading throughout the opening set at 5-1. Harvard quickly diminished that lead to 11-10, but MIT persisted for the rest of the first set, finishing with a strong 10-4 run to win 25-15.

The second set was the opposite. Harvard started the game with an early lead, ahead 6-3. Just as Harvard narrowed the score gap to one point in the first set, MIT pulled the same trick in the second and was behind only 14-13. Yet Harvard managed to push through with a 10-3 run, assuring the team of victory in that second set.

The third set started out very close, with MIT right behind Harvard, 8-7, and there was still hope for the Engineers. But a scoring boost from Harvard ended the game with a larger gap with a final score of 25-16.

The fourth and final set was very close, but Harvard was able to pull away with the win thanks to a strong 6-1 start.

Senior David R. Thomas started for the Engineers, finishing the games off with 13 kills, six digs, four blocks, and two aces — a very impressive performance.

MIT Men’s Volleyball will play next on Wednesday, Feb. 9 at Springfield.