But Harvard has powerful serves of its own, as Jones has kicked up his jump serve for the Crimson as of late. The senior now ranks fourth in the country in service aces per set, with .47 per set.

"Last time we played them, the key was our serve-receive and blocking," Madden said. "We worked a lot in practice on those things. We got a serving machine this week, and we could practice the same serve in hard areas and get a lot of good reps."

The top spot in the conference, while mathematically possible for Harvard, would require both the Nittany Lions dropping all four of their remaining games and the Crimson winning its final four games. And as Penn State has only lost three games all season and maintains a perfect conference record, that scenario does not appear likely.

But despite their pristine EIVA record, Harvard is still gunning to knock the Nittany Lions off of their perch.

"They have definitely had their moments in the season when they have shown some weaknesses," Gibbons said. "We have been looking to take advantage of that."

And Gibbons knows that this might not be the last time the two teams meet.

"Assuming we do make the playoffs, Penn State is likely going to be the rival that we are going against to see if we can make the NCAA tournament," Gibbons said. "So this is a nice preview for us to see what the outcome could be at the end of the playoffs."

—Staff writer Peter G. Cornick can be reached at pcornick@college.harvard.edu.