Women's volleyball hopes to continue hot streak against Harvard, Dartmouth

The women's volleyball team has spent most of its season digging its way out of a hole. Early season woes nearly put what was expected to be a top-notch Princeton team out of the Ivy title race. This weekend, with time running down on the season, the Tigers will make a final lunge to daylight.

Princeton (12-7 overall, 6-3 Ivy League) has pulled itself back into contention with a recent surge that features six wins in a row, the last four of which came in the form of 3-0 blowouts. If the Tigers win this weekend's games against Dartmouth (7-13, 2-8) and Harvard (9-11, 2-8) in Dillon Gym, they could very well find themselves in a position to take the Ivy title.

"We're kind of coming from behind," sophomore outside hitter Kellie Cramm said. "The league hasn't really considered us a threat, yet. We have to win these two matches."

Even if Princeton does manage to knock off Harvard and Yale, first-place Penn (14-4, 8-1) could clinch the Ivy title this weekend. The Quakers have a two-game lead on the Tigers with three games to go. Were it not for a surprising 3-0 home loss to a mediocre Cornell team Oct. 13, the Quakers would have already clinched the crown.

Now, Princeton's chances rest on the hope that Penn loses two of its five remaining Ivy League games — one to either Dartmouth, Harvard, Brown or Yale, and another to Princeton next Tuesday. Unfortunately for Princeton, Penn is more than a match for the Big Green, Crimson, Bears and Elis. The Tigers must hope for a slip-up, one that would occur against Brown (13-9, 8-2), if anyone.

"It's not impossible," Cramm said. "We just need Brown to beat Penn . . . which could happen."

For any such scenario to develop, however, the Tigers must continue their hot streak. The two teams they face this weekend, the Crimson on Friday and the Big Green on Saturday, have not been impressive thus far this year. Both teams stand at 2-8 in the Ivy League, and both lost to Princeton, 3-0, the last time they met.

Dartmouth's weakness, according to Cramm, is its lack of depth. The Big Green feature feared outside hitter Ashley Dean. Aside from Dean, however, Dartmouth has very little.

"She pretty much passes the court," Cramm said. "As long as we can stay away from her, we'll be better off."

Cramm also cites a weakness in Dartmouth's mental game as a source of their struggles.

"They seem to be a really emotional team," she explained.

Harvard's season is reminiscent of Princeton's. The Crimson feature a number of young players, but have struggled thus far in finding a workable team chemistry. A number of injuries to key players have slowed this unification process.

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The Tigers had the same problem early in the year, struggling to integrate their younger players into the team while shedding others as the injury bug struck. Since they came together six games ago, however, the team has been nearly unbeatable.

Princeton must hope that Harvard does not pick this weekend to make such a transition. In the meantime, the Tigers expect to encounter a Crimson team that is strong on blocking, but weak on other facets of defense.

Despite these problems, Cramm believes that the teams' records do not correlate to the threat they pose.

"They're not weak at all," she said. "They do have several good players on each team. We've just been clicking."

Given their current roll, it seems likely that the Tigers will keep clicking off the wins this weekend. But given the standings in the Ivy league, whether or not they click off their third consecutive Ivy League title will depend on what goes on outside of Dillon Gym.