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Crimson Edged by Yale, Shuts Out Brown

Kocurek sets mark as Harvard splits weekend play against Ivy rivals

The Malkin Athletic Center was an eventful place this weekend.

During the two Harvard women’s volleyball games, a record was broken, one contest required overtime, another ended in a shutout, and a German accordion player performed the American national anthem on Saturday night.

For the crowd of almost 400 that gathered in the Malkin Athletic Center, both the American flag and the team’s veterans, in their last home game ever, provided reason to be proud on Senior Night.

Fittingly, Harvard’s (11-12, 7-5 Ivy) four four-year veterans contributed noteworthy performances against the Bears in a dominant 3-0 victory that came less than 24 hours after a 3-2 overtime loss to Yale.

Co-captain Chelsea Ono Horn and her fellow seniors Katherine Kocurek, Lily Durwood, and Alissa Flescher all made a mark in their final game at the MAC, contributing five kills, four aces, 30 assists, and six more kills, respectively, on Saturday.

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Kocurek also made noise the night before, becoming Harvard’s all-time leader in digs.

HARVARD 3, BROWN 0

Brown (5-17, 1-10), the bottom feeder of the Ivy League, appeared to have the Crimson’s number at the start of the contest on Saturday.

Harvard stumbled to a 3-0 deficit out of the gate due to some jitters on defense in the back row.

Shifting back into gear, powerful kills from sophomore Anne Carroll Ingersoll and junior Mikaelle Comrie put the Crimson within striking distance of the lead at 8-7.

Brown held on to its slim advantage until Comrie blasted one through the block en route to tying the score at 18. Harvard took a late lead at 21-19 off of Brown attack errors and held on to grab a 25-22 victory.

After the previous night’s intense matchup with Yale, Harvard coach Jennifer Weiss was impressed to see her team maintain a strong tempo.

“To come in [Saturday] and be able to keep it up was wonderful,” Weiss said. ‘The seniors did great. All four of them had a wonderful career.”

Two seniors in particular showed off their veteran wiles in the second set. At 4-4, Durwood put the Crimson up 5-4 with a trick shot.

Later, Kocurek made a key one-handed dig to help boost Harvard’s 5-0 advantage at 19-14. Back-to-back aces from Kocurek put the crowd on its feet and closed out the second frame for the Crimson, 25-14.

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