Lafayette falls to w. volleyball

After peering into the jaws of the Leopards, the Tigers roared back to victory. Showing the strength, skill and aggression of its namesake mascot, the women's volleyball team defeated Lafayette 3-1 in a hard-fought contest.

Princeton extended its record to 7-1 — but not without a scare. The Tigers, victims of their own mistakes, fell behind in the first game against Lafayette.

"We beat ourselves [in the first game]," senior co-captain and middle blocker Alex Brown said. Princeton lost the game, 30-24, but came back to win the second game easily, 30-20, thanks to strong team blocking and defense led by sophomore libero Jenny McReynolds, who would finish the match with a team-high 18 digs.

In a tight third game, Brown and senior outside hitter Lauren Loban continued their leadership of the Tigers' ferocious offense that had begun to gel in the second game. Loban had a key kill as the Tigers began to pull away from a 7-7 tie early on with Lafayette. Princeton won the game 30-20 in much the same fashion as the second.

The Tigers were forced to claw back from an early Lafayette win on their way to seal the match with a 30-17 win in the fourth game.

As Princeton recovered from a poor start, the unrelenting attack of Brown and Loban proved insurmountable for the Leopards. The duo came up with, respectively, 18 and 15 kills for the Tigers. Lafayette looked increasingly disorganized and frantic as it scrambled to recover against an impressively coherent and calm Princeton team.

The Tigers' defense also played well, holding the Leopards to only 17 points in the final game. Senior co-captain and outside hitter Ashley Weber added 17 digs to McReynolds' 18, and junior outside hitter Lauren Grumet had 15.

After the team's close loss to an experienced St. John's squad, head coach Glenn Nelson noted the team was "ripe for a bit of a letdown," in reference to the team's slow start. In the end, though, Princeton prevailed.

"We were a bit steadier and that was the difference," Nelson said.

The Tigers will play one more tourney this weekend before opening their regular season with Ivy League rival Pennsylvania.

At practice the day before the contest against Lafayette, senior co-captains Brown and Weber agreed this year's squad was the strongest team either had seen in their four years. Good news for the Tigers, considering Princeton has improved in each of the past three seasons, including falling one match short of the Ivy title a year ago. Perhaps the strength of the Tigers' non-Ivy play indicates an exciting regular season to come.