Men's volleyball extends win streak to seven in a row

The men's volleyball team seemed down for the count Friday night in Dillon Gymnasium. The Tigers were down, 0-2, to Rutgers-Newark, a league rival that stood between Princeton and any chance at postseason glory. The Tigers (7-4 overall, 3-2 Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) had dropped five straight games to the Scarlet Raiders (9-5, 6-2), dating back to the Tigers' EIVA opener at Rutgers-Newark's home gym, and it was beginning to look like the Scarlet Raiders were inside Princeton's head.

But just when it seemed the Tigers were finished, they got up from the ground, dusted themselves off and delivered a stunning comeback that included a dramatic knockout punch in the fifth and final game to earn the 3-2 victory. Princeton kept up the winning on Sunday, demolishing Southampton, 3-2.

The Tigers' win Friday not only avenged Princeton's early-season loss to Rutgers-Newark but also brought the Tigers into a tie with the Scarlet Raiders for third place in the EIVA's Tait Division.

The fifth game, played to 15, started like the first three, with the teams swapping points early. Then, with Rutgers holding a slim 12-11 lead, sophomore opposite Jack Pichard's hit attempt went wide, giving Rutgers a 13-11 lead. Suddenly, the Tigers' furious comeback seemed about to fail.

Fortunately for Princeton, sophomore middle hitter Brian Hamming put away a set by senior setter and captain Jason Liljestrom to get a side-out on the next point, and Pichard stepped back to serve with the Tigers' hopes riding on his shoulders. With his earlier error fresh in his mind, the sophomore fired a jump serve that Rutgers couldn't handle, and the Tigers equalized at 13. Hamming followed with a huge block of the next Scarlet Raider hit attempt, and the Tigers took a 14-13 lead that they would never relinquish en route to an 18-16 victory.

The match started at 7 p.m. on Friday night, and the Tiger fans that packed the stands at Dillon were predictably belligerent.

"The crowd was unbelievable," junior outside hitter Ryn Burns said. "So many people, heckling so hard."

But the Scarlet Raiders nearly took the rowdy crowd out of the match by sweeping the first two games. Each Rutgers-Newark win followed the same format — the two teams would play each other evenly until the score reached the 20s, and then the Scarlet Raiders would clamp down while the Tigers made crucial mistakes down the stretch to lose the game. At the end of the second game, with Princeton down 24-29, the Tigers lost the match on an ace, giving the Scarlet Raiders huge momentum going into the third game.

"That ace really took the air out of the crowd," Pichard said. "So we had to fire ourselves up for the third game if we wanted to come back."

Princeton won the crucial third game by a close 30-27 score, but the team was just beginning to click. The middle hitting of junior Sean Vitousek and sophomore Brian Hamming began to hurt the Scarlet Raiders, and in the fourth game the Tigers dominated Rutgers, refusing to lose any of the tough points and hitting almost .600. The 30-23 Princeton victory evened the match at two games apiece and set the stage for the exciting final frame.

The Tigers kept up the momentum on Sunday, steamrolling a much weaker Southampton team, 3-0. Princeton dominated the home team throughout, and the Colonials (0-12) did not even reach 20 points in any of the three games.

Junior outside hitter Blake Robinson led the team with 14 kills and also chipped in three aces, while 10 other Tigers got on the board with at least one kill.