Columbia University
Harvard
Columbia Returns Home With Exciting 3-1 Win Over Harvard
10/16/2015 11:06:00 PM | Volleyball
NEW YORK – After over a month of playing on the road, the Columbia women's volleyball team (5-10, 3-3 Ivy) returned home to New York in exhilarating fashion, defeating the defending Ivy League champion Harvard Crimson Tide, 3-1, in front of a roaring crowd on Friday night.
The Lions wasted no time attacking in the first set behind the swing of Bailey Springer as they jumped out to an early 5-1 lead. After the Crimson Tide was able to go on an 8-2 run to take back the lead and force a Columbia timeout at 10-7, the Lions answered back with five-unanswered points to take hold of a 12-10 lead.
Tied at 16-16, the Lions began to rally behind the serve of Jennifer Petrovich, picking up three-straight points to take a 19-16 lead and force the defending Ivy League champions to take their final timeout.
While the Crimson Tide began to fight back, the Lions would not give up as a huge defensive save led Columbia to a 25-20 set-one upset.
Taking advantage of four attacking errors in eight attempts by the Crimson Tide, the Lions were able to jump out to an early 8-3 lead to open set two, forcing Harvard to use its first timeout.
With Columbia holding on to a 17-8 lead, Harvard began to respond as it rallied for eight-straight points before a service error could swing the momentum back in favor of the Lions.
From that point on, Columbia would not give up its lead as it took set two, 25-19, on a Katarina Jovicic kill to take a two-set lead into the break.
Harvard took the upper hand in the early goings of set three, jumping out to a 7-3 lead before the Lions were able to storm back with a 6-2 run to tie things up at 9-9.
Still tied at 14-14, the Crimson Tide began to wake up offensively, taking five-unanswered points before going on to claim set three, 25-16.
After a back-and-forth battle to open up the fourth set, the Lions were able to fight back with three-straight points, capped off by a Sarah Collins' ace, to take a 10-7 lead.
The Lions continued to battle out to a 16-10 lead, but the Crimson Tide found an answer with three unanswered points to cut the lead to 16-13.
Columbia would not give in, however, as it rallied ahead to seal the upset with a 25-20 fourth-set victory, taking a 3-1 win over Harvard.
Three Lions finished with double-figure kills in the match with captains Bailey Springer (18) and Zoe Jacobs (14) leading the way while Katarina Jovicic posted up 10. Jennifer Petrovich picked up 51 assists, seven digs and three aces while Cassie Wes led the back line with 23 digs.
The Crimson Tide struggled at both sides of the net in the match, committing seven blocking errors and six service errors, including the one that sealed the match to give the Lions the victory.
Columbia will be back in action tomorrow evening as they return to Levien Gymnasium for a Homecoming matchup against Dartmouth at 5 p.m.
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