  Building on work by Bouc and by Shareshian and Wachs, we provide a toolbox of
long exact sequences for the reduced simplicial homology of the matching
complex $M_n$, which is the simplicial complex of matchings in the complete
graph $K_n$. Combining these sequences in different ways, we prove several
results about the 3-torsion part of the homology of $M_n$. First, we
demonstrate that there is nonvanishing 3-torsion in $H_d(M_n;Z)$ whenever
$\nu_n \le d \le (n-6}/2$, where $\nu_n= \lceil (n-4)/3 \rceil$. By results due
to Bouc and to Shareshian and Wachs, $H_{\nu_n}(M_n;Z)$ is a nontrivial
elementary 3-group for almost all $n$ and the bottom nonvanishing homology
group of $M_n$ for all $n \neq 2$. Second, we prove that $H_d(M_n;Z)$ is a
nontrivial 3-group whenever $\nu_n \le d \le (2n-9)/5$. Third, for each $k \ge
0$, we show that there is a polynomial $f_k(r)$ of degree 3k such that the
dimension of $H_{k-1+r}(M_{2k+1+3r};Z_3)$, viewed as a vector space over $Z_3$,
is at most $f_k(r)$ for all $r \ge k+2$.
