CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Harvard volleyball team (4-1) started their first weekend on the road in Ohio with two games against Akron and Cleveland State (CSU). The Crimson fell to Akron in a close 3-2 but rallied for a sweep over CSU to open the CSU Invite with a 3-0 win.

Game 1 at Akron

The Zips built up a lead to start the first set, pulling six points ahead of the Crimson to go up 19-13 at one point in the set. However, Harvard went on multiple runs to catch up and tie the game at 21, then going on to tie at 25. After point 28, the Crimson had the advantage and went on to win a nail-biter 32-20.
In a nearly identical start to set two, Akron went up 19-13 and forced the Crimson to play catch-up once again. Harvard rallied to come back to 21-22 and then made a four-point run to close the set and go up 2-0.  
However, the Zips took control from there. Akron won the third set 25-16 then used that momentum to win 25-20 in the fourth and force a fifth set, that the Zips took 15-10.

Highlights at Akron

• Ava Rauser led the Crimson in kills, putting up 12 over the zips. In the five-set match, three others joined her in double-digit kills in Ashley Wang (11), Katie Vorhies (11) and Ariana White (10).
• Wang continued her now three-game streak of triple-doubles with her 11 kills, 27 assists and 12 digs.
• Following Wang, Aguirre was also essential in assists with 23.
• Hannah Nguyen continued to be dominant from the servers line, scoring 3 aces.
• First-year Ryleigh Patterson made 5 block assists that added to her 5 kills and 2 aces to score 9.5 points for the Crimson.
• Lindsey Zhang led the team in digs with 16.

Game 2 at Cleveland State

The Crimson started the match with an excellent first set, building a large lead and only expanding on it throughout the frame. The set closed out 25-16 with an easy 1-0 for the Crimson.
Set two was closer to start, with a 6-6 tie coming up as the Vikings hung with the Crimson for a bit. However, Harvard took control over the host school from there, building up another lead to win with a decisive kill from Ariana White, 25-17.
The third set of the night was tighter than the first two, with Cleveland State hanging within one of the Crimson all the way to point 20. From there, Harvard took control and built a three-point lead, making it to 25 and leaving the Vikings at 21.  

Highlights at Cleveland State

• Wang led the team in kills with 9, followed by Ava Rauser with 8 and Nicole Prescott and Ryleigh Patterson with 7 each.
• Patterson had a great night, hitting .773 with 7 kills of 9 attacks and no errors. 
• Similar to the first match of the day, Aguirre (19) and Wang (16) led the team in assists.
• Zhang led the team in digs once again, posting 11 in three sets against CSU.

Up Next

The Crimson will play one final match in Ohio to close out the CSU Invite against Bucknell on Saturday, Sept. 9 at 11 a.m. Live stats will be available for the match.