Blue Devils Fall to Harvard, 3-1

The Central Connecticut volleyball team lost their final match of the Harvard Invitational to the host Crimson on Saturday. It took four extremely close sets for the Blue Devils to be defeated 3-1 (25-21, 25-23, 23-25, 25-23). CCSU is now 3-5 this season and will look to rebound as they travel to California next weekend to compete in the Fullerton Classic.

In a tightly contested first set, sophomore Lauren Snyder and freshman Danielle Gasser kept the Blue Devils in it with five kills and six digs, respectively. CCSU took the lead on a kill by sophomore Tori Vaughan to make it 17-15, but Harvard then went on a 5-1 run and held onto the lead for the rest of the set.

Central got off to a good start in the second set as they led 5-1 early on four straight points off of senior Amanda Olmstead serves. The two teams were tied 11 times in the set before the Crimson finished off CCSU 25-23 on a service ace by freshman Christine Wu. Junior Jamie Baumert led the Blue Devils with four kills and two blocks in the second set.

With 13 ties and five lead changes, the third set was again an exciting battle. After being knotted up at 19, the Blue Devils tallied four straight points starting with a service ace by sophomore Amanda Bayer and never looked back. CCSU's 25-23 third set victory was largely due to the strong performances by Bayer, with eight assists and five digs, as well as sophomore Kaitlin Petrella's six digs.

The fourth set Central led 17-13 before the Crimson scored eight points in a row including three straight kills by freshman Anne Carroll Ingersoll to take the lead for good. Petrella had 11 digs and Snyder recorded six kills in the closing set.

Snyder and Petrella finished with game highs of 18 kills and 22 digs, respectively. Bayer had another fantastic overall match, recording 35 assists, 11 digs, five kills, two blocks and three service aces. Baumert totaled a game high five blocks in the match. Snyder was named to the Invitational All-Tournament Team for her performance over the weekend.

The Blue Devils fall to 3-5 on the season and will be competing against California, Cal State Fullerton and San Francisco in the Fullerton Classic on September 19 and 20.