Cambridge, Mass. – The Harvard volleyball team celebrated their three seniors and faced off against Cornell on Saturday, Nov. 5. Harvard (5-15, 4-8 Ivy) fell to Cornell (5–16, 3-9 Ivy) 1-3 in four sets of 23-25, 17-25, 25-19 and 14-25.

The Crimson and Big Red programs went into the night relatively even, with a previous contest this season going Harvard's way. With multiple players out due to injury, Harvard took a few points to warm up. Cornell started the night with a lead in set one, which was eventually tied up by Harvard but ended up going the way of the Big Red. Cornell took an early lead in the second set as well and held on to secure a 2-0 set lead. Harvard took an early lead in the third set, which consisted of three ties and two lead changes but gave the Crimson their first set win of the night as they pulled away toward the end. The final set of the night went to the Big Red as they were able to pull away and win the match after the teams tied up at nine points.

Harvard Highlights

• Today's match honored the three Crimson seniors, Bella Almanza, Kate Condra and Jaimie Rao, for their dedication and commitment to the Harvard Volleyball program throughout the past four seasons. Details on their time at Harvard are listed below.
• Brynne Faltinsky led the team in kills with 11, followed by Katie Vorhies and Almanza with nine.
• Almanza scored three aces for the second match in a row and Vorhies scored one to report the team's four aces of the night.
• Rocky Aguirre led the team in assists with 19 followed by Almanza with 15.
• Hannah Nguyen led the team in digs with ten followed by Almanza with eight.
• On her senior night, Almanza appeared in the top-three on the Harvard team in kills, assists, aces and digs.
• Three players posted three block assists each in Ava Rauser, Olivia Cooper and Ariana White.

Honoring Our Seniors

Bella Almanza: Almanza is concentrating in Sociology with a secondary in global health and health policy. The Pforzheimer House resident was elected team Captain in her Senior season and has been an influential player on the court. She has touched the court in 82 matches wearing Crimson, breaking the barrier of 1000 assists in the 2021 season.  She has been a starting setter in her 4 years and is currently ranked in the top ten of the Ivy League in three categories: blocks, aces, and assists. She has been on the Ivy league honor role as well as most recently awarded Coop Athlete of the Week. During her four years at Harvard, she worked for Raise Uganda Now, a Harvard affiliated philanthropic organization, volunteered at the campus Y2Y homeless shelter, and was a part of Harvard after school tutoring program Mission Hill. She plans to explore different career paths related to her concentration post-graduation! 

Kate Condra: Condra from Cabot House is concentrating in Human Development and Regenerative Biology with a secondary in global health and health policy and a citation in French. She has played an instrumental role on the team both on and off the court.  Sidelined with an injury last year, she has worked hard to get back on the court and has impacted team practices and competition. This season she has stepped into a leadership role and continues to work hard and always puts her teammates first. During her four years at Harvard she served as a founding member of the nonprofit organization Pre-College Research Institute (PCRi) where she also serves as an associate director of biology. She also works as an undergraduate research assistant in the Fishman lab studying the development of the intracardiac nervous system, where she is working on her thesis. After graduation, she plans to take a gap year before attending medical school.  

Jaimie Rao: Rao is a resident of Cabot House and has a concentration in Computer Science with a secondary in economics. Serving as captain for two seasons, she was named to the All-Ivy Honorable Mention team and earned Academic All-Ivy Honors in her junior season.  In her 57 career matches she's totaled 503 kills, 119 blocks and 91 digs. During her time at Harvard, she has been a part of the Harvard College Deans' Student Advisory Panel and the Big Fish Little Fish program in Cabot House. Post-graduation she will be moving to Los Angeles as an incoming investment banking analyst for Morgan Stanley. 

Up Next

Harvard Volleyball will finish their regular season on the road next weekend at Brown on Friday, Nov. 11 and Yale on Saturday, Nov. 12. Both matches will be streamed on ESPN+.