To say that the men's volleyball team had a busy week would be a gross understatement. Princeton had its home-opener against Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association rival Concordia last Thursday and then hosted George Mason and St. Francis in a doubleheader at Dillon on Saturday. And to top it all off, the Tigers took on Harvard on Sunday.
Undaunted by last week's strenuous schedule, Princeton proceeded to win two of four games at Dillon, posting impressive sweeps over St. Francis and Harvard.
The Tigers were dominant with a 3-0 (30-26, 30-21, 32-30) victory over the Red Flash Saturday night, as freshman outside hitter Blake Robinson led the way for Princeton with a match-high 19 kills. Freshman outside hitter Ryn Burns also added 10 kills and junior opposite Dennis Alshuler accounted for eight.
Senior middle hitter Scott Dore had a team-high seven digs in addition to scoring nine kills for the Tigers' attack.
Sophomore setter Jason Liljestrom paced Princeton with a game-high 47 set assists, accounting for all but two of his team's total.
Matt Farabaugh led St. Francis with 12 kills in the losing effort. Chris Telesco had a match-high ten defensive digs for the Red Flash and notched 11 kills.
As a team, the Tigers had 54 kills, while St. Francis tallied 50. Princeton also edged the Red Flash in blocks nine to seven.
The Tigers concluded their hectic week by sweeping the Crimson 3-0 (30-23, 30-20, 30-26) on Sunday afternoon.
Robinson's performance was the story of the day, as he led Princeton in both kills and digs with 14 and 13 respectively. Burns had nine kills against Harvard, and Dore added eight.
Liljestrom helped set the tone for the Tigers with his match-high 46 assists, totaling all of Princeton's set assists for the entire game.
Justin Denham led the Crimson attack with a match-high 17 kills, supplying more than half of Harvard's total number of kills. Mike Bookman led the Crimson in assists (28) and digs (six).
The Tigers were simply too much for Harvard, registering 48 kills to the Crimson's 32. Although Harvard had 11 team blocks to Princeton's six, the Tigers looked solid defensively with a 40-25 advantage in digs.
Sunday's victory against the Crimson bettered Princeton's record to 4-6 on the season.
The Tigers rebounded well to crush Harvard and St. Francis after losses to Concordia and George Mason.
Concordia downed Princeton Thursday night 3-1 (29-31, 30-25, 30-27, 30-17) spoiling the Tigers' home opener.
Robinson led Princeton with 18 kills and added six digs against the Clippers. Burns also contributed 12 kills and six digs for the Tigers, while Alshuler and Dore had eight and seven kills, respectively. Alshuler was one of three Tigers with six digs against Concordia.
Princeton's other loss came against George Mason. The Tigers never really found their rhythm against the Patriots, losing in three straight (30-23, 30-26, 31-29).
Robinson and Alshuler had 13 and eight kills respectively versus George Mason, but in the end it was not enough.
The Tigers will not have much time to recooperate from last week's grueling schedule, seeing that the team will host the New Jersey Institute of Technology this Tuesday.
"Hopefully we can maintain this momentum for the rest of this week's games, and continue to improve and strive to play to the level of our ability," Liljestrom said.
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