The 300th episode of "The Simpsons", a snow day, the finale of "Joe Millionaire" and four games of Princeton men's volleyball. The only thing that could make this weekend more perfect would be if Kate Bos-worth announced she's looking for a male lead for "Blue Crush 2: Lake Carnegie Edition".
The Tigers started the weekend with a match against conference opponent St. Francis in the first round of the annual St. Francis tournament. Princeton entered the tourney as the defending champion and successfully upheld that title.
The Red Flash, however, had no intention of simply bowing out of the way. They beat the Tigers in the first two games and were poised to send Princeton packing by the beginning of game three. Before that could happen, though, the Tigers remembered who they were and staged a brilliant comeback. Led by sophomore outside hitter Blake Robinson's 30 kills, Princeton took the next three games 30-24, 30-25, and 15-8.
"That was our first league match of the year, so it was a really big victory for us," junior setter Jason Liljestrom, who finished with 68 assists and 7 digs, said.
The win raised the Tigers' record to 3-3 and sent them into the second round of the tournament with nothing but victory on the brain.
Victory is what they got, as they stomped Lees-McRae (8-2) in three hard-fought games. Liljestrom spread the assists around nicely, with the 43 kills the team rained down on their hapless opponents coming from six different players. The win pushed Princeton into the finals of the SFU invite, where they squared off with Division III D'Youville.
The Spartans hardly had time to figure out what hit them before the match was over, as the Tigers reeled off a three-game win 30-16, 30-24, 30-21. Robinson again led the squad in kills with 21, and Princeton left the St. Francis Invitational in their now-familiar role as champs.
The Tigers entered their next match-up feeling good, the emotions of their five-game winning streak running high. There was another reason to get pumped up, however; Princeton's Sunday match was against Juniata, another Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association opponent and one of the team's top rivals. The Tigers had burned the Eagles last season, so the match promised to be a fierce one.
Princeton rode the momentum from its previous wins through the first game at Juniata, besting the Eagles by a score of 30-22. The second game of that match was one of the hardest-fought the Tigers have seen all year. The two teams were tied 18-18 before Juniata rallied, taking a 24-20 lead.
The Eagles continued to maintain that margin, stretching Princeton to the very edge of defeat with a 29-24 advantage. The Tigers were down but not out, clinging to their slim chances of victory by playing strong defense. The squad held on long enough to struggle back to within striking distance at 29-28. A kill by Juniata's Ryan Cordova finally finished Princeton off, however, tying the match score at 1-1.
At this point things started to go badly for the Tigers. After the Eagles took an 8-2 lead to start, Princeton never again came within three as Juniata rolled to a 30-25 victory.
Facing elimination, the Tigers fought mightily in game four. The game was tied at 10-10 and Princeton kept the Eagles close for the rest of the match. Juniata finally pulled away with a late four-point run, finishing off the Tigers 30-25. The 3-1 defeat dropped the team's overall record to 5-4 and 1-1 in conference play.
Most squads would be fine with a 3-1 weekend, but Princeton is not.
"Our goal was to win all four," Liljestrom said.
The Tigers might have been able to pull out all four wins, but fatigue from all the traveling and the three matches the day before surely hurt the Tigers.
Again, blocking and defense caused some of the squad's biggest problems, although simply by avoiding errors this team could quickly become very dangerous to play.
The Tigers continue EIVA division play with Wednesday's road game against NYU, the team's 10th away game in a row.
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