Men's volleyball sweeps George Mason

It is a well-known fact that college students like to sleep late, but Princeton students showed this weekend that their devotion to the men's volleyball team is greater than their need for a little extra shut-eye. Despite a noon start against George Mason, the team's fans came out in numbers to give a rough welcome to the Patriots and cheer on the suddenly hot Tigers.

The men's volleyball team is officially on a roll. On Saturday, the Tigers(7-4 overall, 3-2 Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) demolished league rival George Mason to run their season-high winning streak to five games. Princeton's 3-0 destruction of the upstart Patriots served notice to the rest of the EIVA that the Tigers are a force to be reckoned with as the push for the postseason begins.

Coming into Saturday's match, Princeton's record in the EIVA's Tait Division stood at 2-2. The Tigers, who hope to host a quarterfinal match in the postseason, desperately needed a win over George Mason (0-10, 0-3) to push their league record over .500 and keep their playoff aspirations alive. However, the Patriots were just as desperate, as they also got off to a slow start in league play.

The implications of the match made for a very exciting Saturday afternoon, with both teams playing their hearts out to earn the all-important league victory. Each kill or block produced a victory scream from the scoring side and a grimace from the losers, neither team gaving up a point without a fight.

In the end, however, the heart of the Patriots was not enough to combat the talent and power of the Tigers. Princeton was hard-pressed at times but refused to succumb to the pressure as they swept to victory in straight games.

The Tigers relied on the same formula for victory that has carried them to all five of the wins in their current streak. Senior setter Jason Liljestrom recorded 51 assists and repeatedly made the right decisions in distributing chances between Tiger hitters. Most of Liljestrom's sets found either junior outside hitter Blake Robinson or sophomore middle blocker Brian Hamming. The two stars combined for 34 kills and seemed to come up with their best efforts when the Tigers needed them most.

Each game followed the same formula — the Tigers would get on top early, then George Mason would stage a late, inspired rally, and Princeton would find itself in danger of dropping a game with just a few points to go. Then, the Tigers would bear down, and Robinson or Hamming would come up with late kills to spur Princeton to victory.

After the match, captain Liljestrom summed up the team's effort in the clutch.

"When times got tough and things were dicey, I just thought to myself — bump . . . set . . . spike . . . chicks . . . brews."

Whatever technique the Tigers used, it worked, and the Patriots had a long and disappointing bus ride home. The Princeton fans, rowdy as ever despite the match's early noontime start, made sure the George Mason players would be especially emotional on the ride home.

"The fans were like our seventh man," Robinson said. "Whenever we'd start losing some momentum, they'd pick us up with a sweet cheer and remind us what we were there to do."

Tiger fans would love to be Princeton's seventh man come playoff time, when every point can turn on the smallest lapse in concentration. If the Tigers can come up with a few more league wins like Saturday's, their passionate fans just might be rewarded with a playoff game at home.