Women's volleyball heads to New England for Brown, Yale

After destroying rival Penn at The Palestra last weekend, the women's volleyball team will be on the road again this weekend for conference match-ups against Brown (4-8 overall, 1-0 Ivy League) on Friday and Yale (5-4, 0-1) on Saturday.

Last week's road victory against the Quakers was a confidence builder for Princeton (10-3, 1-0), who previously had lost the last three conference openers to Penn. The Quakers were also the ones who stole the conference title from the Tigers last season.

As is frequently the case, however, it won't be easy. Brown is coming off a big win over Yale last weekend that took five games to decide. They also took down Providence the following night, 3-1. Winners of three of their last four, the Bears are finally starting to get into midseason form. This was not the case in the beginning of the season, as they dropped seven of their first eight before their current streak.

Princeton had no trouble with Brown last year. In fact, few Ivy League teams did. The Bears finished 3-11 last year in the conference, including two 3-1 losses at the hands of the Tigers.

Much can change in a year though, and Princeton recognizes that.

"The level of league play overall has risen a great deal this year," senior outside hitter Ashley Weber said, "so we have the mindset that this is going to be a tough season, which will require a lot of intensity and determination."

Yale is a team that is looking to break into the top tier of Ivy League teams and join Penn and Princeton as perennial contenders for the title. Last season, the Bulldogs finished a solid 8-6, good enough for a fourth place finish in the Ivy League. One of those eight wins was a mid-season home victory against a then-undefeated Princeton team that was making a run at the conference title.

The win was a long time coming for Yale, which prior to that had not defeated Princeton since 1997. The loss was one of only three for the Tigers in their Ivy League season.

The leader for the Bulldogs in that victory will be the leader in this weekend's match-up as well: senior Jana Freeman. She led the Ivy League last year in kills (393) and kills per game (4.42) and was awarded a second-team All-Ivy pick.

Freeman is not the only player Princeton has to worry about, though. The Bulldogs bring a well-balanced attack to the net and are quick on defense.

To overcome this, the Tigers will look to take advantage of their height at the net. Junior middle blocker Brittany Wood and senior middle blocker Alex Brown will lead that front as they have done all season. The two lead the team in blocks — Brown with 40, and Wood with 43.

"Our blockers really stepped it up [last] weekend [against Penn]," sophomore libero Jenny McRey-nolds said. "If our block wasn't there, our defenders stepped in and at least got a touch on the ball."

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Starting the conference season with three straight away games isn't easy, but the Tigers are getting used to life on the road. Thus far, 11 of their 13 games have been away from Dillon Gym. Many of these games, however, were tournament games played against other teams that were also on the road. Now, as the conference season is just beginning, Princeton must get used to playing against loud crowds and teams that are determined to upset a Tiger team that many consider to be the favorite to win the Ivy League title.

Two victories would mean a 3-0 start for Princeton in the conference and would keep the Tigers on top of the Ivy League, a position they plan on holding for the rest of season.