The Harvard men's volleyball team has to wait another year for another shot at its dream: to be called the best in the Ivy League.

Harvard, which was coming off a splendid win against Yale last week, played its final match of the season last Saturday. Unfortunately for the Crimson, it was against nationally ranked Princeton.

Harvard (22-9 overall, 7-3 EIVA) was simply outmatched in all aspects of the game by the Tigers in the semifinals of the Ivy League Tournament, as the Crimson stumbled to a third place finish in New Haven, Conn.

Two Wins, One Loss

The Crimson, playing in a pool consisting of Brown, Dartmouth and Pennsylvania, defeated the Bears and the Big Green in straight-sets but fell to the Quakers in the final match, 15-9 and 16-14.

"It was a long day and the loss to Penn was very dissapointing," junior Brian Jones said. "Our outside hitting wasn't up to par and we also had some trouble passing, which is usually consistent."

A victory against Penn would have placed the Crimson on top of its bracket, thereby avoiding Princeton in the semifinals.

"We had such a long wait before the Penn match and people became unfocused," junior Captain Vince Marin said. "We started extremely flat."

Three Straight Points

The Crimson held match point in the second game but could not capitalize on the opportunity and allowed the Quakers to run off three straight points to close out the match.

"I thought that we were going to win the [Penn] game but when it came to the crunch, they made the plays that mattered," Jones said.

In a one-sided game, the Tigers handily downed the Crimson, 15-3 and 15-4.

"We were overwhelmed by the entire thing and put out a dismal effort," Marin said.

Princeton went on to defeat Cornell in the finals, 15-10 and 15-9, for the championship.

Season Recap