Dartmouth Downs Harvard in Ivy League Opener

Saturday, September 24

Cambridge, Mass. / Malkin Athletic Center

5:00 PM

Dartmouth College

9-2,1-0Ivy League

Harvard

1-8,0-1Ivy League

Dartmouth

Harvard

Emma Engstrom volleyball action versus Merrimack

Emma Engstrom ’25

Photo by: John and Matt Risley

9/24/2022 8:55:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

The Big Green started conference play in winning fashion with a four-set road victory

By: Kyle Relf

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Following up one of their best nonconference slates in program history, the Dartmouth volleyball team opened Ivy League play with a four-set win at Harvard Saturday evening. The Big Green emerged victorious in the first two sets before dropping the third, and later regrouped to edge the Crimson in a closely contested fourth.

Ellie Blain led a balanced offensive attack with 14 kills, while Grace Wiczek followed with 10. Emma Engstrom posted a team-high 23 digs, while Karen Murphy led the Big Green (9-2, 1-0) with 22 assists. Blain and Engstrom recorded three aces apiece for Dartmouth, which entered the match ranked 11th in the nation in aces per set. The Big Green registered a .204 hitting percentage to Harvard's .174.

"The team played together the entire time and this is great momentum to start conference play," Blain said. "We relied on each other, stuck together and were able to have a tough, but fun fourth set."

Neither side was able to gain the upper hand in the opening set until Dartmouth's six-point run that brought the score to 19-15 – the largest lead either team had enjoyed up to that point. Harvard (1-8, 0-1) responded with a short run of its own, but Dartmouth was able to claim five of the set's final six points, capped by Blain's kill, to earn a 25-20 victory.

Dartmouth saw little resistance in the second game, leading by as many as 10 midway through and eventually pulling out a 25-16 win. The visitors fully seized momentum when Wiczek and Bomi Ogunlari combined for three consecutive kills to run the score to 16-8. Blain took matters into her own hands for the final two points with a kill followed by an ace at set point.

Refusing to go away on its home court, Harvard took the third set, 25-20. The Crimson raced out to an 8-2 lead, and while the Big Green hung with the resurgent hosts and trailed by as little as two down the stretch, Harvard stayed alive with back-to-back points to finish the set.

Harvard held an early lead in the fourth set and looked poised to force a fifth, but Dartmouth's late run erased the possibility. Clinging to a two-point lead after Harvard's kill, the Big Green unleashed a three-point run that featured kills by Taite Ryan and Amelia Gibbs. It was another Gibbs kill that brought match point and Ogunlari's rocket sent the Big Green home winners.

The victory avenged a pair of five-set losses Dartmouth suffered in the 2021 season.

Hear from Ellie Blain after her 14-kill performance in Dartmouth's four-set win over Harvard! pic.twitter.com/ZdiIunfdcQ
— Dartmouth Volleyball (@DartmouthVBall) September 25, 2022