In a tough weekend of travel and intra-conference play, Princeton (9-10 overall, 5-4 Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) lost to Harvardon Fridaynight and then Sacred Hearton Saturdaynight. Moreover, the Tigers suffered steep scoring margins, losing to Harvard in four sets and then Sacred Heart in only three. The loss to Harvard dropped the Tigers to third place in the EIVA conference with under a month of play left in the regular season.
Friday’sgame against the Crimson put the long standing rivalry between the two teams at stake — this was a rematch of last year’s EIVA semifinals, in which Princeton defeated Harvard in four sets. Going into the match, Harvard trailed Princeton by just half a game, putting pressure on the Tigers to defend their standing.
The Tigers actually got off to a solid start early on Friday. The Orange and Black capitalized on Crimson errors midway through the first set to go on an 8-2 run and comfortably finish the game by a 25-17 margin. However, the Harvard wasn’t the only team to fall to errorson Fridaynight; in fact, the key statistic for the Tigers soon became 34 total service errors on the night. In all three remaining sets, the Crimson demonstrated the ability to close out tight sets while the Tigers succumbed to costly errors, highly uncharacteristic for the clutch Tigers.
Despite the loss, several Princeton players marshaled impressive statistics. Consistently dominant senior outside hitter Cody Kessel displayed 14 kills. His counterpart, junior outside hitter Devin Stearns led the team with 16 kills. Sophomore middle blocker Junior Oboh also featured eight kills and six blocks.
The odds were even more in favor for the Tigers going intoSaturday’sgames versus Sacred Heart. Prior toSaturday, Princeton had amassed a significant 6-2 series lead over the Pioneers. Moreover, Sacred Heart had indicated signs of struggle throughout the season, winning only one conference game prior to this weekend.
The Pioneers soared to a quick starton Saturdayand never looked back. Going on 4-0 runs throughout the evening, Sacred Heart held Princeton to just 11, 18 and 19 points in the respective three sets. Fortunately, the Tigers were able to prevent the previous night’s mistakes, committing a significantly fewer number of service errors at 13 in total. Kessel led the Tigers with 12 kills, while the Pioneers relied on a more balanced distribution of kills.
Prior to this weekend, the Tigers had actually faced both teams at home in February, winning by significant margins. However, the weekend play only reinforces Princeton’s continued struggle to win on the road — the Tigers are 5-1 at home but only 3-7 away.
The pressure of the two losses were somewhat alleviated as Harvard lost to NJIT on Saturday night, dropping Harvard to only half a game ahead of the Tigers in the EIVA standings.
Following these two losses, the Tigers will capitalize on a 10-day intermission before beginning a three-game home stand against Kean, Penn State and St. Francis.
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