Going 1-2 in their showing at the Hofstra Tournament last weekend, the women’s volleyball team had a dominant performance at the Rutgers Tournamentthis FridayandSaturday. They won all three of their matches on the weekend, defeating Duquesne, Rutgers and Howard.
The Tigers, moving to 5-4 after their three victories, started their weekend with a doubleheader, Duquesne in the morning and Rutgers in the evening. They rolled through Duquesne 3-0, with the sets going 25-21, 25-13, 25-14. Three players in particular, one might say, went for the kill: junior outside hitter Cara Mattaliano led the team in kills with 13, followed by junior middle blocker Brittany Ptak with 11, and senior right side hitter Kendall Peterkin with 10.
The next game, against the Scarlet Knights, would fare little better for the Tigers’ foes. Another 3-0 sweep remained, with the scores from the sets more lopsided than against Duquesne: 25-14, 25-13, 25-14. Mattaliano, Ptak and Peterkin led the squad in kills once more with 10, 8 and 12 respectively.
The final match of the weekend, and by far the toughest, would come against the Bisons. The first set of the match indicated what kind battle this was going to be — the Tigers pulled out on top in what was so far their closest contest of the tournament, 25-23. After that, however, the Bisons seized all of the momentum. Another close set ensued, but this time the Bisons dealt the Tigers their first loss of the event, winning 25-23.
The Bisons stayed aggressive. After picking up this victory, they came storming out into the third set of the match. Going up by as much as 17-7, they refused to let up the pressure as the Tigers took their second loss, to the tune of 25-17.
Facing defeat, the Tigers kept their cool. The fourth set was close throughout, until the Bisons threatened to pull away and win the match, going up 22-18. Their 22nd point would be their last — the Tigers went on a 7-0 run to come from behind and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
The rest was all Tigers. While the final set was close for a while, the Tigers and Bisons neck-and-neck 8-7 at one point, the Tigers pulled away to seal the deal. The final score was 15-8, Tigers victorious.
For the thrilling game, Peterkin, Mattaliano and Ptak got the highs in kills once again, with 21, 15 and 8 respectively.
The Tigers will start up againnext Friday, as they open up Ivy League play against Penn on the courts of Dillon Gymnasium at 7 p.m. As one can imagine, this part of the season determines the Tigers' chances of extending their season, as the Ivy League champion earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Princeton was not too far away from that goal, coming in third place in the league for the 2014 season. They had particular success against their nearby rivals last season, beating the Quakers 3-0 in Philadelphia and 3-1 at Dillon.
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