Women's volleyball defeats Cornell and Columbia, extending win streak to seven

Princeton women’s volleyball (13–6 overall, 9–1 Ivy League) went 2–0 this weekend against Cornell (15–4 overall, 8–2 Ivy) and Columbia (11–9 overall, 4–6 Ivy), extending their win streak to 7 matches.

The weekend started in Ithaca, NY in a battle of the first-place Ivy League teams, where Princeton came out on top 3–2 (19–25, 22–25, 25–21, 25–21, 15–12). Princeton started off the match against the Big Red by dropping the first two sets and initially allowed Cornell to go on a quick 3–0 run in the third set. This didn’t stop the momentum on the court for the Tigers, though. Princeton rallied back to go on a 7–0 run. The Tigers kept their lead until a Cornell block tied the set at 16-all and a Tiger attack error gave Cornell the lead. A kill from junior Clare Lenihan put the Tigers up 19–18, and they didn’t give up the lead again in the 25–21 victory.

The Tigers started the fourth set off strong with an early 3–0 lead before the Big Red got a point on the board. During the entire fourth set, the Tigers never let Cornell take the lead. Princeton also started the fifth set with a quick 2–0 lead, eventually extending that lead to 5–3 before the Big Red went on a 6-point run to propel up 5–9. Trailing by four points, a large kill from freshman Olivia Schewe started a 7–0 run from the Tigers that pushed the Tigers in front of Cornell with a lead that they never lost in their 15–12 victory.

Senior Maggie O’Connell had a special night as she recorded her 1000th career kill. Totaling in 13 during the match. Lenihan also contributed 13 kills while senior Jessie Harris led the offense with 58 assists and sophomore Cameron Dames recorded 32 digs.

The match against Columbia was another exciting night for the Tigers as they defeated the Lions 3–1 (25–21, 25–17, 23–25, 28–26) and senior Devon Peterkin had a career-high 19 kills.

The first set started with a Princeton 5–0 run and despite the fight put in from the Lions, they never gained the lead during the entire set. The second set started out much closer than the first, generating three ties until the Tigers went on a four-point run to get them the 8–4 advantage. The score was tied once more at 11-all, but the Tigers didn’t let the Lions score more than six more points in their 25–17 win.

Set three didn’t end as victorious for the Tigers. Columbia took their first lead at 2–3, but the Tigers would take it back and stay ahead until a Lion kill tied the score at a close 22-all and another kill put them ahead by one point. A Princeton kill by O’Connell tied the score once more at 23-all, but the Tigers couldn’t stop Columbia from forcing off a kill and a block to tally the final two points of the set.

Columbia stayed resilient in the fourth set, forcing the score to be tied 17 times. Columbia had set-point at 25–24, but two errors placed the Tigers back into the race. At a 26-all tie, senior Natasha Skov would push the Tigers to match-point at 27–26, and a Columbia attacking error gave Princeton the victory.