The big grin on senior outside Sabrina King's face midway through the third game of women's volleyball's easy straight-sets win last night against SUNY-Stony Brook told the whole story.
The Tigers, who are now 18-8 overall, 6-1 Ivy League, coasted through the match with confidence as King and senior middle Emily Brown got to close their last Princeton match at Dillon Gym with a decisive win.
"It's hard to get really excited when the team you're playing is not that good," Brown said. "It was a fun match to play, though."
Domination
Princeton dominated the Sea-hawks each game by margins of 15-6, 15-9, 15-9.
The only problem the team seemed to have was closure. In each of the first two games, the Tigers jumped out to early 14-4 leads but required 16 and 11 tries, respectively, to capture that elusive and crucial 15th point to ensure the win.
After several thwarted efforts, the Tigers finally captured the first game with a spike from sophomore outside Michelle Buffum. The second game was handed over courtesy of Seahawk setter Alison Fields, who hit the ball long.
"We call that prolonging the agony," King said. "It's common in volleyball. You just have to try not to think about it and to just close [the match]."
By the third game there was no hesitation from the team as freshman outside Kerry Song served for the 15th point right on the heels of the team's 14th point. King's block of Stony Brook's countereffort was unanswered, sealing the win for Princeton.
The Tigers hope to repeat this result next weekend when they compete in the Ivy League tournament.
'Serve and defend'
"We need to work on moving to receive and not having errors," head coach Glenn Nelson said. "We need to serve and defend as we have all year. If we can do that, we should be fine."
As the defending champion and the No. 1 seed, confidence and talent should carry the team through the league's Ivy League tournament.
"As the defending champions, there's a little pressure," Nelson said. "But if anyone can do it, that's us."
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