Volleyball concludes Ivy League play against Cornell and Columbia

This Friday and Saturday the women’s volleyball team will travel to Cornell (2-10 Ivy League, 6-16 overall) and Columbia (5-7, 7-14) respectively to conclude Ivy League play. The Tigers, fresh off a five-game winning streak, will be looking to transform their current momentum into two wins away from home. These last two games will be crucial for Princeton as it seeks to claim the top in the Ivy League and qualify for the NCAA championships.

The Tigers (8-4, 13-8), currently ranked no. 2 with Dartmouth, are one win away from current table-leaders Harvard (9-3, 13-9). This is particularly remarkable considering the Orange and Black started the season in a 0-3 hole and were under the .500 marker halfway through the Ivy League season. Since then the Tigers have won eight of their last nine games, defeating all the teams that beat them at the start of the season. This includes a victory over five-time defending champions Yale and a sweep of Harvard.

“I’m so proud to have beaten some pretty tough teams, especially Yale,” senior right side hitter Kendall Peterkin said. “We haven’t beaten them since 2011, so to be able to do it my senior year is really special. Our morale is high right now and we plan to ride it out until the end.”

Clearly, the Tigers have plenty to be confident about as they make the journey to Ithaca and New York this Friday and Saturday. Indeed, the Tigers swept both the Big Red and the Lions 3-0 during their first encounters. Still, Columbia and Cornell have proven to be tough opponents in the past and Princeton will need to maintain its usual focus and energy in both matches.

“Our plan this weekend is just to focus on the game at hand and play with as much urgency and intensity as we have been the past few weeks,” junior outside hitter Cara Mattaliano said. “Cornell and Columbia are good teams and so we will have to continue to bring our A game to beat them.”

While the season is certainly up for grabs, the Princeton squad will be focused on its individual games and try to end the season on a successful note. “We are not focusing on the outcome, winning or losing the Ivy League, because right now all we can do is focus on winning the individual games,” Mattaliano said. “Cornell and Columbia are tough teams, like all teams in the Ivy League, and we are going to go out there with confidence and give it 100 percent to finish out the second half of the season undefeated.”

In order to qualify for the NCAA championships, Princeton will need to tie or overtake the Crimson. In other words, this Friday and Saturday, the Tigers will have to win at least one more game than the Crimson, who will travel to Yale and Brown this weekend. If Princeton completes its remarkable comeback it will claim a spot in the NCAA championships for the first time since 2007. If Princeton manages a tie with Harvard, the two teams will play a deciding match for the top spot. While the team will be facing unfavorable odds, this season has proven anything but predictable.

Regardless of the outcome, the women’s volleyball squad will have plenty to be proud of as it finishes off a captivating season. “The season has been crazy. So many unexpected things have happened and I am proud of our team for not getting caught up in the standings and pulling it together toward the second half of the season,” Peterkin said. “The four of us seniors have had such a fun year and we couldn’t be more proud of this team for making that happen.”