M. volleyball ends season with loss to George Mason

All good things must come to an end. Games, seasons, and even careers, no matter how stellar, all inevitably come to a conclusion. Unfortunately for senior setter Jason Liljestrom, the end to his great collegiate volleyball career came just a few games too early. On Saturday, Liljestrom and his teammates saw their season come to a close in the first round of the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association postseason with a 3-1 loss to George Mason (7-17 overall).

Princeton (13-10) and George Mason had already met each other twice this season. While the Tigers won the first match, 3-0, George Mason took the second one, 3-1. Each team took the match in its home gym, which would seem a good omen for the Tigers as Princeton hosted the first round playoff game.

Alas, the home court advantage was not enough to propel the Tigers to victory. The fans did their part, jeering the visiting players so much that in a break between the third and fourth games, Patriot opposite hitter Arturo Barriero walked to the Princeton sideline to spit on the ground and make an obscene gesture. Barriero was lucky that his weak display of machismo was not penalized, but his fiery actions matched the passion of his teammates. In the end, the George Mason players had the fire and confidence to roll to victory.

Liljestrom performed consistently, as always, distributing scoring chances evenly among Tiger hitters and making sure his teammates got the ball in position to succeed. His best sets benefited middle hitters sophomore Brian Hamming and junior Sean Vitousek, who combined for 24 kills and just four errors in the match. But his favorite target on the outside, junior Blake Robinson, missed his fourth consecutive game with a slightly fractured ankle. Without the threat of Robinson's bombs from the side of the net, the Tiger offense was not its usual powerful self. Despite this, Princeton was able to dominate the first game, 30-17. The Tigers used a .483 hitting average to cruise to the win in that game, but for the rest of the match it was the Patriots who connected consistently. After easily winning the second game, 30-19, George Mason hit .556 in the third game en route to a 30-24 win.

Down 2-1, and with its season on the line, Princeton rallied from an early deficit in the fourth game and got the score to within one point late in the match. The Patriots' star, outside hitter Felix Campos, served up a timely kill which stifled Princeton's momentum, and along with another teammate's kill, got George Mason to within one point of the victory. Princeton battled back, getting a sideout and earning two points on serves by Hamming. A final service error concluded the game in anticlimatic fashion, sending the Patriots to the EIVA semifinals.

George Mason benefited from Campos' heroics thoughout the game. He was constantly heckled by the belligerent Princeton fans, but the jeers only served to fire Campos up. The outside hitter led his team with 26 kills and a .489 hitting percentage. Campos' daggers made life easy for Patriots' setter Dave Egan, who finished with 47 assists and did just enough to out-duel Liljestrom, his counterpart across the net.

Liljestrom, however, filled out the stat sheet with one of his typical versatile efforts. The soon-to-be graduate had 51 assists, five aces, eight digs, and four blocks to finish his Princeton career with his head held high. Unfortunately for Liljestrom and his teammates, however, the loss means an end to the Tigers' season. The Patriots will move on to face conference leader Penn State while Princeton cleans out its lockers and prepares for the offseason. The Tigers finished 2004 with a 13-10 record, and every starter but Liljestrom will be back in 2005.