W. volleyball splits year's last weekend

On the last weekend of the season the women's volleyball team sought a miracle to keep in the running for the Ivy League title.

The Tigers went 1-1 over the weekend, finishing at 15-9, 9-5 in the Ivy League, and enjoyed no miracles. They finished third place in the league.

Friday night, Princeton traveled to Brown, trailing Penn (17-6 overall, 11-3 Ivy League) and the Bears (14-10, 11-3) in the Ivy League standings, but it was still mathematically possible for the Tigers to take the title.

Brown ended Princeton's hopes for a miracle with a victory over Tigers on Friday.

"Our passing was pretty bad," sophomore outside Kerry Song said. "We weren't playing like we can."

The Bears finished off the Tigers, 3-0, exhibiting exactly the ability to finish that Princeton lacked most of the season. Although all three games were close, Brown was able to pull each one out to keep themselves in the hunt for the Ivy title, while eliminating the Tigers from it.

"We would get ahead, then let them score five points in a row," Song said. "We just weren't on, and Brown played really well."

After losing to Harvard and essentially falling out of the title race last week, Princeton came into Providence, R.I., with little to play for and could not motivate themselves to overcome a Brown team they had defeated on Oct. 19. Brown needed the win to vie for the title with Penn.

"We got into a rut and we couldn't get out of it," Song said.

The following night in New Haven, Conn., Princeton played its last game of the season against Yale.

"We wanted to finish the season on a winning note. It was Ana's last game," Song said, referring to senior setter Ana Yoerg, who had 50 assists against Yale.

The Tigers came out strong, winning the first two games 30-23 and 30-24 in dominating fashion over Yale. Princeton dropped the next two games, however, 30-24 and 30-26 to the Elis.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

"We won the first two games and played really well," Song said. "Then they won the third and fourth games. We were a little overconfident and didn't focus well."

Whatever the Tigers lost during games three and four came back for game five. They started off by winning the first four points and carried that momentum through to a 15-11 win in the game and a 3-2 win in the match.

"We knew that Brown and Penn were tied for first in the league and we wanted to finish with the next best record," Song said.

Princeton did just that, finishing tied for third with Cornell at 9-5 in the league.

The Tigers had what was in many respects a disappointing season, after winning the Ivy League Championship and the NCAA tournament bid that goes with it, three out of the last four years.

They will only lose Yoerg to graduation. Although she played the key position on the floor as a setter, the Tigers think they "have a good shot at winning the league next year," Song said.