CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The Columbia volleyball team suffered its fourth straight defeat on the road, falling to Harvard in three sets (21-25, 19-25, 18-25) Friday evening at the Malkin Athletic Center.
 
Columbia (9-10, 3-6 Ivy) saw its overall record dip below .500 for the first time since the second week of September. Meanwhile, Harvard (10-8, 5-4 Ivy) improved to 5-1 in its last six Ivy League matches after starting the league season 0-3.
 
The Lions were led on the attack by Emily Teehan's 10 kills, marking the first-year outside's 13th match of 10 or more this season. Teehan also came up with 11 digs, marking her eighth double-double, and took over sole possession of the Ivy League lead in aces with her 26th and 27th. Defensively, first-year middle Isa Lamus tied her season-high of seven blocks while junior libero Kalie Wood racked up a match-high 17 digs, including seven in the second set alone.
 
Harvard doubled up the Lions in hitting percentage and saw three players post at least eight kills. The group was led by junior Grace Roberts Burbank, who hit .500 with a team-high nine kills. Senior libero Anna Uhr led the ground defense by posting 14 digs and Evelyn Gray led the block with six.
 
Columbia battled through a tight first set that saw 11 ties and four lead changes. Teehan gave the Lions a 20-19 lead with her third kill of the evening but the Crimson responded with five straight points on Uhr's serve to take control and earn a handful of set points. Evelyn Gray put down the clinching kill to give Harvard a set lead.
 
Four straight Lions points opened the second set, but the lead was short lived. Harvard quickly tied things up, 5-5, and the two sides went toe-to-toe through the middle part of the set. After Columbia leveled the score at 15 apiece off a block by Lamus and senior Luciana Del Valle, the Crimson scored three straight to give themselves some breathing room. Columbia was outscored 10-4 the rest of the way to fall behind by two sets.
 
The Crimson jumped out to a 9-4 start in the third and were never in real jeopardy from there. The lead grew to eight for the first time at 16-8 before consecutive attacking errors made it a 10-point set, 22-12, in the later stages.
 
The Lions will look to end the weekend with a season sweep over Dartmouth on Saturday. First serve from Leede Arena is set for 5 p.m. on ESPN+.

WATCH ON ESPN+
After the Ivy League announced its partnership with ESPN, all home and Ivy League volleyball matches are scheduled to be played on the ESPN+ this fall. To sign up for ESPN+ for as low as $4.99/month or $49.99/annually, and catch all the action this season click here.