Women’s volleyball falls just short of Ivy championship

As its season came to an end, the women’s volleyball team (19–6 overall, 12–2 Ivy League) trailed Yale (19–4, 13–1) for the Ivy League title by one match. Yale finished conference play 13–1 while Princeton finished 12–2. This didn’t bring the Tigers down as they finished their season strong with a sweep on their senior day, Nov. 10, against Dartmouth (10–15, 5–9).

The seniors honored during senior day were middle blockers Caroline Sklaver and Nnenna Ibe, setter Claire Nussbaum, and right-side hitter Brittany Smith. Sklaver finished her Princeton career with 12 kills in the 3–0 (25–11, 25–23, 25–20) win over Dartmouth while Ibe recorded eight kills and six blocks to help guide the win.

Junior right-side hitters Maggie O’Connell and Devon Peterkin showed their offensive strengths with O’Connell adding 12 kills and Peterkin adding nine. Defensively, sophomore outside hitter Alexa Underwood led the team with 10 digs, and junior setter Jessie Harris was not far behind with nine. Freshman libero Cameron Dames added eight to the mix. Harris also led the team with 34 assists for the match, solidifying her rank as the Ivy League leader in assists per game.

The leaders on the team made up the five All-Ivy League players from Princeton’s team. O’Connell and Peterkin both earned 2018 first-team All-Ivy League honors. In conference play, O’Connell had the highest hitting percentage and she ranked third in the league in kills per set. She received one Ivy League Player of the Week honor this season. Peterkin ranked 10th in the league in kills and 11th in digs, proving herself one of the league’s most versatile players. Peterkin was named Ivy League Player of the Week three times this season.

Second-team All-Ivy honors went to Harris and sophomore middle blocker Clare Lenihan. Harris has appeared on the All-Ivy team every year, this being her third appearance. Harris finished the season with 12.24 digs per game in conference play, and her assists kept the Tigers in the lead in kills and hitting percentage in the Ivy League. Lenihan ranked second in the league in hitting percentage with a .412 this year, her first year as the starting middle.

Sklaver was finished her season with an All-Ivy honorable mention, and she ranked third in the Ivy League with a .316 hitting percentage.

While the season didn’t end as the Tigers had hoped, they showed great success through their players filling the leaderboards and their impressive overall and conference statistics.