The team played a much closer game last week when it split games against ninth-ranked University of Minnesota in the Dartmouth Duels, leaving hope that the performance against Harvard (6-4, 1-0 Ivy) would not bode poorly for the rest of the season.
"We've been practicing and playing at a really high level as we prepared for the beginning of the Ivy League, and I think there were a little bit of nerves," Kaira Lujan '16 said. "We didn't come out as we really should have."
Defensively, the Big Green (7-5, 0-1 Ivy) stood its ground, posting 46 digs to Harvard's 50. Dartmouth fell short, however, on the attack, with a team percentage of .081 in the third set compared to Harvard's .438.
"We know we need to work harder and execute better than we did at Harvard," co-captain Lucia Pohlman '15 said. "Ultimately, we didn't execute, and I think the problem with the game was that we each had our own good games, but they were matched with errors that hurt us as a whole."
Across the three sets, Dartmouth had 16 errors, more than the kills they had in any given set, while Harvard posted only 10.
The strength of a few opposing players proved difficult for the Big Green to combat. Sophomore Kathleen Wallace and freshman Corinne Bain boasted attack percentages of .500 or above with only two errors between them. Bain had the second most digs on her team, two less than the highest Harvard player and four more than the highest Dartmouth player, Holly Harper '15.
"I think that Harvard came out strong, and it kept us out of rhythm," Lujan said. "Volleyball is a game of errors and you need to be able to come back against a strong team."
In the first set, Dartmouth suffered a 16-25 loss, creating a difficult level of play for the Big Green to break.
"In the first set we started out strong, and we were doing really well in the beginning," Emily Astarita '17 said. "Then we started breaking down. We couldn't pass any balls and get any kills. Our offense just couldn't get going."
Dartmouth only lost by four points in their second set, but by the third game, they began losing steam.
"The second game we really came back and made a concerted effort, but I think there were a series of bad plays that set the pace as a little more frantic and less comfortable," Lujan said. "We had a big loss at the beginning of the third set, which made the court high stress and affected us overall. If one thing went wrong, we tried to do something differently which lead to more errors."
Astarita agreed with Lujan's assessment.
"I think we weren't focused on our individual roles on the court," she said. "Everybody was trying to make it better, but by doing that we were sort of losing focus and not executing as we should have."
Though it could not gain the steam to win any of its sets, the Big Green still displayed some promising numbers. Astarita, named Ivy League co-rookie of the week on Sept. 24, doubled the kills and the attempts of the next highest players on the team, finishing the game with 10 kills and 30 attempts. Lujan lead Dartmouth in attack percentage, however, with a .375.
"I think that Harvard is one of our more intense rivals," she said. "We kind of have a tendency to go back and forth with them."
The Big Green identified a few key points to address before it meets Harvard again in October.
"We got tooled a lot and didn't block very well," Astarita said. "Our blocking should have been better. Our serve receive broke down a bit, too."
The issues, however, were not solely on the defensive side.
"I think that we had some trouble with serving, and our passing pattern broke down a little bit which made it harder for us to play well," Lujan said. "We're working on that in practice, and working on getting a setter earlier into our rotation."
Regardless of the acute causes of the defeat, Pohlman made it clear that she does not believe it has to do with team dynamics.
"We have 19 people on the team, and everyone is good enough to contribute," she said. "If in the gym we're allowing ourselves to make errors, then that's going to translate into a game. Sometimes there's enough people on the bench, but we can't rely on that as a strategy."
The Big Green seeks to reestablish its success this season, when they travel to Rhode Island for their next game against Bryant University tomorrow at 7 p.m.
