“We got a little bit too complacent in the third,” Madden said. “We started letting it slip against a team we know we can beat. That’s frustrating, and that frustration can be a little difficult to get out of.”

“We missed three of our four serves in game three and that sort of set the tone,” Baise said. “We never recovered from there.”

Clemens came out with a statement in the fourth, smacking the ball over the net for the first kill in the fourth. Blocking picked up three consecutive points for Harvard, bringing the squad its largest lead of the set at 10-5.

“Sacred Heart definitely played scrappy in the fourth game,” Madden said. “They were hustling, getting the balls up, and we had to come and match that to get the win.”

Sacred Heart increased its energy on the court as the score narrowed, and neither team led by more than two points in the second half of the set. The Pioneers had the first shot at match point, when senior setter Rob Lothman put Zimmick up for an important kill. The Crimson went through three more servers, holding match point four times before the 31-29 win came on an error by Sacred Heart’s junior outside hitter Jose Juelle.

The crowd was on its feet with every point in the suspenseful final minutes.

“I don’t feel like we let up,” Baise said.

Going forward, Harvard hopes to avoid games with such disparities in its play across sets.

“It was almost two different matches,” added Baise. “We have to put together a complete match, a little bit of consistency, and the confidence to know that we can do that would be key.”