Tonight at 7:00 p.m. in Leede Arena the Dartmouth's Men's Volleyball team will face Harvard in what looks to be a grueling rematch of these two Ivy League powers.
When they first met this season in Cambridge, Dartmouth was able to come out quickly and surprise the Crimson with consistent passing and evenly spread attacks. The Big Green shutout Harvard 3-0 by scores of 15-12, 15-11, and 15-9.
The Crimson had been the better team for the past four years and had beaten the Big Green every time the two met. Dartmouth ended that streak with its solid win
"We knew we had the talent," co-Captain Jeremy Longinotti '96 said after the game. "But we figured we'd need to execute. Nobody on this team has ever beaten Harvard and for the seniors, this season was our last chance."
Now the team faces a bigger challenge, a stung and bitter Harvard team, which is determined to avenge its earlier loss.
Longinotti said the key to Dartmouth's win in January was its quick 10-4 start and the fact that Dartmouth's prowess took the Crimson by surprise.
Tonight, the surprise will be gone. The Crimson know the team they will face is a club team, but now they understand that it is one with varsity talent.
Harvard will be coming out, "playing hard," co-captain Marc Ginsburg '96 said. "They know that they got beat last time and they don't want to lose to us again."
But the Big Green will not be looking to make any special changes.
"We don't plan to do anything different for tomorrow," Ginsburg said. "We're going out there to play our style of volleyball and to beat them."
The team goes into tonight's match coming off a sloppy 3-1 victory against Plymouth State on Saturday.
The win boosted the Green's overall record to 10-1, and their league record to an undefeated 3-0.
The Big Green executed poorly, sometimes not at all, and allowed a charged-up Plymouth team to win the second game, after the Green had taken the first.
"We played down a little, and we looked a little slow," Ginsburg said.
The Big Green went on to win two hard-fought third and fourth games. "We stepped it up in the fourth game to win," Ginsburg said. "Things finally came together. That's the team that's going to go out and beat Harvard."
This was the first league match the Big Green have lost a game in, and Ginsburg said this was the result of "it being Winter Carnival Weekend, maybe guys weren't as psyched up to play. "
The Big Green also host Boston College Thursday and Vermont and Maine on Saturday.
