W. volleyball to play Ivy League rivals Yale, Brown

The women's volleyball team's season has only just begun, but this weekend will go a long way towards determining Princeton's fate.

After a win last night against St. Francis, the Tigers (7-5 overall, 0-1 Ivy League) will play host to Ivy League rivals Brown (1-8, 0-1) on Friday night, followed by Yale (8-2, 1-0) on Saturday afternoon — both at Dillon Gym.

Last Friday, both Brown and Yale kicked off their Ivy seasons by playing each other in New Haven, Conn. Although the Bears came out as the eventual loser, 3-0 (30-22, 30-27, 30-26), they displayed several facets that could prove troublesome for the Tigers.

Scrappy Bears

For her performance against the Bulldogs, setter Leigh Martin earned a place on the Ivy League honor roll. She posted 39 assists, which several Bears capitalized on for kills, including 13 from outside hitter Lauren Gibbs.

On top of the offensive power, Brown touts several players who posted double-digit digs against Yale. Karalyn Kuchenbecker picked up 17, while the team leader in digs, Kim Highlund, managed 15. Highlund needs only six more to enter the Brown record books for most career digs and only 48 more to reach 1,000.

Despite the Bears' dismal record, the threat for Princeton is that Brown can be a fairly scrappy team — managing to dig hits that then set up kills of their own. The Tigers struggled against Penn on Friday with a similar aspect, so Princeotn must ensure to put the kills down when it should.

Yale, on the other hand, is off to its best start since 1992, led by outside hitter Renee Lopes. She posted 12 kills against Brown, with setter Jacqueline Becker contributing 42 assists.

The Bulldogs like to spread the wealth around. Against Brown, Yale's top two swingers combined for 23 total kills, but that totaled just over half of Becker's assists.

Princeton will face a swinging attack from various positions around the floor. It must be in the right positions to dig Yale's swings.

The Elis are currently among four Ivy teams that are still undefeated, but will meet Penn on Friday, with both teams trying to better their rankings.

Challenge from within

However, the biggest obstacle the Tigers will have to overcome this weekend may well be themselves.

The Tigers saw a fair amount of success during the preseason, and by the time they hit the Penn match, it seemed Princeton was ready to roll. However, the Quakers managed to reveal two weaknesses that the team still faces.

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In order to be successful on the court, each player must be comfortable with every teammate on the court. While volleyball may seem as easy as bump-set-spike, it is in fact a game of intricate communication and positioning. A team must work in one accord; no single player can carry an entire volleyball team.

Against Penn, at times, the team looked like six individuals instead of one unit. Players were out of position, passing balls that should have been passed by another teammate, causing the play to go awry.

In order for the Tigers to be successful, they must continue to get comfortable with each of their teammates on the floor, so that they can face teams like Yale and Harvard (later in the season) as one coherent unit, all on the same page.

The second key to success in this weekend's games will be Princeton's mental game. Stemming from a team's comfort with each other, the Tigers must come prepared to play mentally.

When Penn was able to break down the mental focus of Princeton last week, the Tigers struggled to stay in the game with a strong Quaker team. This resulted in the three games that Princeton lost 30-26, 30-24 and 30-26.

When the Tigers maintained their mental game, however, they were a force to be reckoned with. In the third game, Princeton came out on the court with a mission. The Tigers played almost perfectly, and sent Penn back to their bench nursing a 30-23 loss.

Had the Tigers come out that way in the first two games, the story of Friday's match would have been totally different. Ultimately, this weekend's contests will be decided by the very same factors.