Box Score

BOSTON – A sweep in the 2014 New England Challenge was not meant to be for the Northeastern women's volleyball team on Saturday night, as Harvard squeaked out a 3-1 (25-23, 14-25, 25-23, 27-25) victory over the Huskies.
 
Harvard's win snaps the Huskies' seven-match winning streak against the Crimson, and is only the fifth win Harvard has enjoyed over Northeastern in 31 all-time meetings.
 
Natalia Skiba broke the 2,000-dig milestone on Saturday with a match-high 26 digs, and also led the team in aces with three.
 
Freshman outside hitter Brigitte Burcescu collected the first double-double of her career, posting 16 kills, 11 digs, and four blocks on the night. Teammate Jamie Bredahl tagged 17 kills to lead the Huskies, along with six digs and an ace. Senior Ava Cramp landed nine kills with four errors on 18 attacks for a hitting percentage of .278.
 
Setter Kristen Walding hit the half-century mark in assists for the second time this season, tallying an even 50 assists with 7 digs, two kills, and one block. Alexa Armstrong and Caterina Rosander both collected three blocks apiece, while defensive specialist Ashlee Asada had seven digs and two aces in the match.
 
Harvard (5-2) saw three players finish the match with 10 or more kills, most notably Caroline Walters who had 14 kills and three errors for a hitting percentage of .393. Corinne Bain and Caroline Holte had 11 and 10 kills for the Crimson, respectively.
 
Down 5-3 in the opening set, Northeastern (7-6) scored four unanswered to lead 7-5 thanks to two kills by Bredahl and a block by Armstrong and Walding. Harvard, though, would pull together a four-point run of its own, and a kill by Walters made it 9-7 in favor of the Crimson.
 
The Huskies proceeded to answer Harvard right back, first by scoring four out of five points to lead 11-10, and then stringing together another three points to lead 14-11. Despite surrendering back-to-back kills to the Crimson, Northeastern scored seven out of the next eight points to jump out in front 21-14, causing Harvard head coach Jennifer Weiss to burn her second timeout of the set.
 
With a refocused game plan, Harvard netted seven consecutive points out of the huddle to tie the set at 21-21, and two more blocks later would seal a 25-23 first game win, and a 1-0 lead in the match.
 
Northeastern came out firing in the second set, as Burcescu sent home three kills as a part of a six-point run to help the Huskies open a 9-4 advantage. Paige Kebe slowed down NU with one of her five kills in the match for Harvard, but the Huskies won each of the next six points to cruise to a 14-5 lead. Northeastern would build a lead as large as 12 in the second set, and rolled to a 25-14 win to level the match at 1-1.
 
Momentum was on the Huskies side early in the third set, as Asada dialed up an ace to give NU a 7-3 lead. But Harvard stayed the course and capitalized on three Northeastern attacking errors to retake the lead 9-8.
 
Rosander helped bring the Huskies back, sharing two straight blocks with Cramp to put NU up 11-9. Harvard would blank on back-to-back points, pressuring Weiss to call timeout with her team trailing 14-11. But the Crimson responded well after the break in the action, winning four out of the next five points to level the set at 15-15.
 
Bredahl guided the Huskies to leads at 20-18 and 22-19, but Northeastern failed to convert on two attacks, allowing Harvard to take a 23-22 advantage. Walding found Burcescu to tie the set at 23-23, but the Crimson came up big with a block and a kill by Jennifer Shults to steal the third set 25-23.
 
Huskies head coach Ken Nichols tweaked his lineup in the fourth set by adding outside hitter Hannah Fry and middle blocker Taylor Reiter to his rotation, and saw his team stay even with Harvard at 8-8. The Crimson would win four out of the next five points to lead by three, but Northeastern continued to execute offensively, scoring seven of the next 10 points to lead 16-15.
 
Neither team could pull away from the other late in the set, as both teams were locked in draws at 17-17, 18-18, and 19-19. Harvard went up 22-20 off a kill by Holte, but Northeastern rattled off four out of the next five points to earn a set point at 24-23. However, Bain came up huge for the Crimson down the stretch, earning a block and back-to-back kills to secure the match for Harvard, 27-25 in the fourth set.
 
Northeastern heads to UNCW on Friday, Sept. 26 to kick off its CAA conference schedule. The Huskies will travel to Elon on Saturday, Sept. 28 before returning home to Cabot Center on Friday, Oct. 3 to face Delaware.