Nighthawks Fall to Crimson, 3-1

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Newbury College men’s volleyball team fell to Harvard University, Tuesday evening, in an interdivisional match, 3-1. The Nighthawks responded from being down 2-0 early but the Crimson answered back with great kill efficiency in the fourth set.

Freshmen Kyle Rehkemper and Michael Owen made an early impact for the Crimson, each scoring two services aces in the first set to help Harvard build a 10-6 lead. With Derek Jansmaserving, the Crimson built an 18-9 lead behind two kills from Matt Jones and an ace by Jansma. Newbury made a four-point run to bring the score to 23-19 late in the first set before two Nighthawk attack errors secured the opening set for Harvard.

The early half of the second set was a back-and-forth affair with neither team taking a definitive lead and the score becoming tied six times, the latest at 12-12. Harvard made a surge behind two more service aces from Rehkemper to give Harvard an 18-14 lead and force a Newbury timeout. The teams exchanged points throughout the end of the set with the Crimson grabbing a 25-18 win and two-set lead.

In the third set, the Nighthawks took advantage of a streak of service aces by junior Danny Kim (Plainview, N.Y/Plainview JFK) and Crimson errors to close the gap to one. With the score 17-16 in Newbury's favor, the Nighthawks went on a five point run. Matched with Kim’s four aces and two Crimson receiving errors Newbury took a 23-16 lead, that Harvard could not overcome. Newbury took the third set, 25-20.

Harvard wasted no time recovering as it jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the fourth set. The Crimson converted 41.7 percent of its kill attempts in the fourth set to ensure that they would win both the set and the match, winning the set 25-20.

Kim finished the match tying Rehkemper with a match-high five services aces while senior outside hitter James Beck (Havre De Grace, Md./Havre De Grace) led the Nighthawks with a team-high 10 kills. Senior setter Matt Talamantes (Los Angeles, Cal./Viewpoint) registered 25 kills while senior Max Daley (Cranston, R.I./Cranston) followed up Beck with seven kills.

Jones led Harvard with 15 kills in the match, while Rob Lothmantallied 27 assists. Rehkemper finished the match with eight kills and four blocking assists. The Crimson finished the match with 42 kills and 12 aces.

Newbury falls to 2-5 on the season while Harvard improves to 1-0. The Nighthawks return to action on Thursday January 27^th when they face the Saints of Emmanuel College at 7:00pm.

- Game story provided by: Harvard Athletic Communications

- Game photo by: Samantha Yanofsky