Volleyball | 'Havoc' the name of the game for Harvard

With her team out of contention for the Ivy League championship, Harvard volleyball coach Jen Weiss has the group ready to play spoiler.

"We want to cause havoc up there for that first place," she said.

The Crimson have a perfect chance to do so with second-place Princeton and third-place Penn (10-11, 6-3 Ivy) visiting Cambridge, Mass., this weekend. After tonight's match, the Quakers will take the interstate up to Hanover, N.H., to face Dartmouth (8-13, 3-7) at 4 p.m. tomorrow.

When the Quakers faced Harvard and Dartmouth two weekends ago at the Palestra, they swept both matches easily. But acting coach Ryan Goodwin wouldn't be surprised to see a different result this time around.

"We didn't see either of these teams' 'A' games," he said. "I'm preparing our team to be able to combat their 'A' games."

For the Crimson (9-13, 4-6), that elite level will have to include shutting down sophomore Julia Swanson, who leads Penn and ranks third in the Ancient Eight with 3.6 kills per set. When the Quakers swept Harvard earlier this year, Swanson notched a match-high 19 kills.

Crimson freshmen middle blockers Anne Carroll Ingersoll and Sandra Lynne Fryhofer will lead the stop-Swanson coalition. Ingersoll ranks third in the conference with just under one block per set.

"She's quickly become one of the best middles in the league," Goodwin said.

In addition to slowing down Swanson, Ingersoll and Fryhofer will be counted on to lead Harvard's attack. They rank second and fifth, respectively, in Ivy League offensive efficiency.

"The middles for Harvard were definitely a huge factor when they played us here at home," Penn middle blocker Ashley Hawkins said.

The Quakers, currently riding a five-game winning streak, are not looking past Harvard despite huge matchups with Brown, Yale and Princeton looming in the next two weeks.

"We don't put the cart before the horse," Goodwin said. "All of our preparation during the week goes into that match first. "

Goodwin has made a habit of referring to all of Penn's opponents by their color, rather than their school or mascot. The idea is to avoid the mental identifications that come with certain teams.

"The first time we played Dartmouth, Ryan said, 'We're playing that team in Green,' so that we let go of all the psychological stuff that we associate with [them]," Hawkins said.

"When we go out just against 'the team in Green,' we're just trying to beat the team across the net and get it out of our heads that 'Oh, this is Dartmouth.'"

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