CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Harvard volleyball team (1-0) opened the 2023 season of play with a 3-1 victory over the Stonehill Skyhawks (0-5) in a packed Malkin Athletics Center in the first of three contests this weekend at the Harvard Invitational. The Crimson won the match in three sets with scores of 25-11, 25-17 and 25-20.

The first few points of the match alternated between the Skyhawks and Crimson, as Stonehill already had four games under their belt coming into Harvard's season opener. But it was all Crimson from there, as Harvard built up a 14-point lead with 12 kills and four aces, including three from Ashley Wang, to win the first set 25-11.  

Nicole Prescott got the Crimson started in the second set with multiple kills as Harvard built up a five-point lead early on. The Skyhawks dug into that lead and took their first lead of the night but could not hold it for long, as Harvard finished set two with a 25-17.

They Skyhawks took the lead to start set three, but once again Harvard had something to say about it. Aided by a four-point run to turn the set around, Harvard dominated their third set of the season 25-20 to win their first match 3-0.

Harvard Highlights

• Prescott led the Crimson in kills, scoring nine on the night that contributed to her 10.5 points from kills, an ace and a block assist. She was followed by Ava Rauser with eight and Katie Vorhies and Wang with seven each.
• Wang and Rocky Aguirre hit double digits in assists as Wang reported 17 and Aguirre set up 11.
• Lindsey Zhang led the team in digs, posting ten against Stonehill.
• Wang and Zhang led the team in aces, both scoring three on the Skyhawks.
• Wang put up numbers across the board with three aces, seven kills, 17 assists, 1.5 total blocks and one dig.
• Harvard out-scored Stonehill in nearly every metric, making 35 kills to Stonehill's 22, eight aces to Stonehill's four and recording a hitting percentage of .347 over Stonehill's .072.
• The Crimson have started the all-time series against the Skyhawks 1-0, as this was the first ever meeting between the two teams.

Up Next

The Crimson will return to the MAC for two more games on Saturday, Sept. 2 as they face UNH at 1 p.m. and Holy Cross at 7 p.m. Both matches will air on ESPN+.