The women’s volleyball team has turned it around after a rough start to Ivy League play. Following back-to-back sweeps of visiting Columbia and Cornell at Dillon Gymnasium, the Tigers went 1-1 in their road trip this past weekend, defeating the Brown Bears in five sets and falling to the Yale Bulldogs in three.
Princeton (8-8 overall, 3-4 Ivy League) had to fight tooth and nail to escape Providence with the victory. The Tigers initially seemed on the verge of a sweep on the day — they defeated the Bears to the tune of 25-17 and 25-18 in the first second sets, respectively.
It’s at times like these, however, when a team has to be most vigilant. Despite being on the cusp of moving back to .500 in their Ivy League record, the Tigers found themselves faltering as Brown responded strong.
“Brown’s a very good team. They’re very good at defense, and they never give up.” senior Kendall Peterkin said. “They tend to frustrate you. They slowly start chipping, coming back at you. It’s hard, once you’re up a certain amount of games, 2-0, to stay focused and [have] that power-through mentality.”
Brown came right back at the Tigers with victories of 25-19 and 25-22. As the score indicates, the Bears weren’t at any point really able to break away from the Tigers. Nevertheless, they had put themselves in the position they needed to take the Tigers down.
With the fifth and final set looming — one to be decided in 15 points — coming out and making a statement was more crucial than ever for the Tigers. They responded to the challenge with vigor, with the score moving to 10-5 before the Tigers managed to ultimately put this one to bed, 15-7.
Offensively, the Tigers received high production from multiple sources — junior middle blocker Brittany Ptak led the way in kills at 17. Peterkin followed her with 14, and junior outside hitter Cara Mattaliano and freshman right side hitter Brittany Smith were tied with 11 kills apiece.
The battle against reigning Ivy League champions Yale (10-6, 5-2) was less in the Tigers’ favor. The first set featured the Tigers in a reverse position of their match against Brown. After falling behind the Bulldogs 15-8, the Tigers made a push to knot things up, responding with a 4-0 run before eventually tying things at 19 apiece. This one went down to the wire — the Tigers claimed the lead for a slim time, 22-21. But once match came down to its last two points (at 24-24), the women of New Jersey would be unable to finish down the stretch, falling 26-24.
The remaining games would be quite close as well, but the Tigers faced the same result: 25-22 and 25-21 Yale victories. On the day, Mattaliano and freshman middle blocker Nnenna Ibe led the way offensively for the Tigers with eight and seven kills, respectively. Senior libero Sarah Daschbach led the team in digs with 14.
With this weekend in the books, the Tigers have now run the gauntlet in league play, having gone against each other Ivy League team once so far. They stand in a four-way tie for 4th, three games behind conference-leading Dartmouth.
Peterkin expressed confidence, however, that after surviving the tough start, the Tigers have turned themselves into a stronger unit than they were previously.
“Our chemistry has really connected a little bit more. [It’s about] playing for each other — just go hard, go all out. I want to always kill a ball for my team, not just because I want to kill a ball.” Peterkin said. “I think that with that mentality, and the fact that we’re a little bit more cohesive, we’re going to be able to come at these teams a little bit stronger.”
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