PROVO, Utah – The Harvard Crimson men's volleyball team went toe-to-toe with one of the nation's best tonight in a battle against the No. 6 BYU Cougars. The Crimson (6-8, 4-2 EIVA), fell to BYU (13-6, 2-2 MPSF), 3-0, in the first of two games in the Beehive State.
Logan Shepherd and
Owen Fanning each tallied a team-high six kills to aid the Crimson effort while
Owen Woolbert led the squad with five blocks.
How it Happened
The Crimson and the Cougars went point-for-point to begin the match, as the teams split the first six points of the night.
Owen Fanning recorded two kills in the early going to lead the Crimson effort. A four-point BYU scoring run brought the score to 11-5 in the early going. A pair of BYU service errors, followed by back-to-back-to-back kills by Harvard, brought the score to 12-15 in favor of the Cougars midway through the first set. A four-point run by BYU led the home team into the first set 25-21 win.
The Cougars jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the second set before the team made five service errors to allow the Crimson back into contention. Kills from Woolbert, Bishop and Bardin in the next series of points brought the score to 8-12 in favor of BYU at the halfway point of the set. Woolbert added another block while Fanning and Shepherd each recorded kills on the tail end of the set, but it was not enough to lift the Crimson in the second, as BYU took the set, 25-18.
A trio of kills for
Andrew Lobo helped Harvard match BYU in the start of the third set but a 6-1 Cougar run gave BYU a 10-5 lead to open the final game. Woolbert would add two kills and Shepherd,
Miha Okorn and
Brian Thomas each added one to add to the Crimson scoring in the final set. In the end, BYU emerged with a 25-15 final set victory to take the first match in the series against the Crimson.
Harvard Highlights
Up Next
After a day of rest, Harvard will be back on court to compete against BYU in the second match of the series. The Monday match is set for 9:00 PM EST in Provo, Utah with the match set to air live on B1G+.
