Penn slips past women's volleyball team in Tigers' final match of season

Last night in Dillon Gym, women's volleyball played its last game of the season against Ivy League-champion Penn, and they competed in one of the most exciting matches of the year, which the Quakers took 3-1.

After dropping the first two games, Princeton came out with much more emotion in the third game, jumping out to a 17-9 lead, including a 13-5 run that would help extend their season at least another game. At 19-11, Penn began to pour on the pressure, though, quickly cutting the lead in half to 21-17. A huge spike by junior outside hitter Kellie Cramm put the Tigers up 22-17 and back in the driver's seat, where they won the next 3 straight points to bump the lead back up to eight. The Tigers went on to win 30-21.

"We stopped making mistakes," head coach Glenn Nelson said.

Penn started the fourth game in high gear, scoring eight of the first 10 points before the Tigers called a timeout. Soon, however, Princeton climbed back into the contest, leaving the Quakers with only an 8-10 lead, when Penn called a timeout of its own.

Unlike Princeton's timeout, the Quakers did not come out reenergized, and the Tigers evened the score at 12. Penn called yet another timeout, when Princeton took a 15-13 lead, which ended a Tiger 12-3 run.

Emotions ran high as the teams battled point-for-point into the high teens in a packed Dillon Gym.

With Princeton up 20-17, the ball crossed the net countless times and momentum shifted with that point and a quick follow-up by Penn.

The gym echoed with the screams of the crowd and the shouts of the players as the game headed to a thrilling conclusion. The game was tied and retied until Penn led 29-30. On the next point, Princeton tapped the ball out of bounds, and the Quakers clinched the victory.

The match started out with one of the three departing seniors, outside hitter Michelle Buffum scoring Princeton's first point. Senior middle blocker Abby Studer added a block to put the Tigers up 5-2 in game one, on the way to a quick 7-2 lead.

Penn quickly climbed out of the hole and evened the score at 8-8. Studer ended a streak of four straight points that led to the tie with a thundering spike — one of her 19 kills — but Penn took the lead for good at 11-10 with a five-point run, which Studer also ended with a kill. The team had another five-point run when they were up 18-14 and extended their lead to 22-14.

The teams exchanged points for the next few points before Penn won the last three points of the game to pull off a 30-22 victory before the first break.

"We have a lot of nice players on our team who don't have a lot of volleyball savvy," head coach Glenn Nelson said.

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Princeton jumped out to a quick lead in game two as well at 3-2. The game stayed close until, with Princeton up 9-8, Penn won four straight points. Princeton called a timeout to douse the fire, but Penn extended the streak into a 9-1 run. The scoreboard read 17-10 after Penn's blitzkrieg.

The teams traded points for the next few minutes, but the Tigers made it interesting, pulling within three at 20-23, the closest the second game had been since 10-13, Penn.

The Tigers were unable to hold off the Penn onslaught, though, and the game ended with another Penn victory, 30-23.

After two games, Princeton had no wins, but there had been a few bright spots, with Buffum and Cramm picking up big digs and kills while Studer dominated the middle with power and finesse. Buffum and Cramm ended the match with 6 and 16 kills, respectively.

It was not enough to come back for the final victory, however.

"We feed off of natural ability," Cramm said. "They are just a very well-trained team."

"Ultimately what cost us down the stretch was making mistakes," Nelson said. "They did it a little bit better than we did, and we just came up a little short."