After promising start, w. volleyball begins Ivy League season against Penn

The day of judgment is upon us. After three weeks of play, the preseason is over and the women's volleyball team is preparing to enter Ivy League competition. The time has come for the world to see what this Princeton team is made of —and what better school to demonstrate this against than Penn?

The Quakers (7-4), the embodiment of evil to all Princeton sports teams, are more than just the first Ivy League team the Tigers (6-4) will face. They are the team that ended the Tigers' season last year. They are the Ivy League's defending champions. They are bringing back four All-Ivy League players, including two-time all-Ivy selection Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan.

Yet the Tiger faithful should not despair just yet. Princeton may take a more youthful squad to the floor Friday night than Penn, but in ten games of tournament play the Tigers have learned plenty. The first two tournaments of the season were a series of woes and joys, as the team opened up play against schools with far more experience and lost senior outside hitter Kellie Cramm to illness. Still, the squad held a record of 3-3 after these tourneys, a record most felt was an indication of better things to come.

They were right, as Princeton — with Cramm included — traveled to Juniata last weekend for a successful four-match tourney. The Tigers walked away with a trio of three-game sweeps and only one loss, which came early in the tournament to Division III No.1 Juniata.

"If we had played Juniata on Sunday, the outcome might have been different," assistant coach Sabrina King said. "By then we were playing really crisp, really together. I think we're ready."

Indeed, by the end of Sunday the formerly-green Tigers looked ripe and primed for Ivy League competition. The team did an excellent job controlling the lesser teams at the tourney, but the struggle Princeton had with Juniata left a question mark — is the offense capable of outscoring a powerful team?

Though Princeton saw a lot of its offensive power graduate in June, Cramm has returned to spearhead the reborn Princeton attack and sophomore setter Jenny Senske is back to direct the offense. The ten games the team managed to squeeze in before this league match-up have provided a chance to work out many of the kinks involved.

"Our offense is coming along," King said. "A lot of it depends on our passing. We have a tendency to make a few bad passes and then freeze up."

Sophomore outside hitter Lauren Grumet leads the team with 90 kills on the young season, followed by junior outside hitter Ashley Weber and junior middle blocker Alex Brown, who have 65 and 58 kills, respectively.

In spite of all the improvements that have been made, the Princeton offense is still a work in progress. On the defensive side of the ball, however, there is nothing but good news. In preseason play, the Tigers often found themselves digging more balls than they knew what to do with.

This defensive prowess will be the Tigers' hope for victory come Friday. Penn is a powerful offensive team without much defensive ability, so it should be interesting to see how the dynamics work out against the solid Princeton defense and developing attack.

"We have to watch their middles; that's their strength," King said, acknowledging the power that Kwak-Hefferan and company will bring to the match.

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One thing is certain though: a win will not be easy.

The Tigers want this one though. Any two-time defending champion is always a good team to gun for; the fact that it is Penn only makes it more special.

"I'd like to say that we take all Ivy games equally," King said. "But here, we definitely have more of a revenge mode."

The first step on the road to greatness begins Friday, 7 p.m. at Dillon Gym.