Cornell match must-win for w. volleyball

While it's certainly too soon to throw in the towel, the women's volleyball team has found itself in a position in which one loss could effectively dash its hopes for an Ivy League title.

With five games left in the Ivy League season, Princeton (15-6 overall, 6-3 Ivy League) sits one and a half games back of both Cornell and Harvard. The team now views every game as a must-win.

That makes this weekend's home matchups versus Columbia and Cornell (14-6, 8-2) crucial to stay within striking distance of the league leaders. While the struggling Lions (3-19, 1-9) will likely put up little challenge for the Tigers, the Saturday contest against the Big Red promises to be intense.

Cornell is not typically on the short list of title contenders. Most often, that list contains only two teams: Penn and Princeton. Yet this year has been different; the league has been balanced, and the Big Red finds itself in a position to take home a conference title for the first time in 11 years.

Cornell has won four conference games in a row. The past two matches have been sweeps for the Big Red. One was against then-first place Harvard last Friday; the other was the next night against seventh-place Dartmouth.

Cornell nearly accomplished a similar feat in its first matchup with Princeton earlier this season, as the Big Red cruised to an easy 3-1 victory in Ithaca, N.Y. The crowd at Newman Arena was the largest of the season for Cornell and was especially raucous in the fourth and final game in which the Big Red rolled through the Tigers.

The story of that game has been the story of Cornell for much of the season. The Big Red uses sophomore outside hitter Elizabeth Bishop as its main offensive threat. She leads Cornell in kills per game and has been named Ivy League Player of the Week twice so far this season. She led all players in kills in the first match against the Tigers with 22.

Bishop will not be the only problem for Princeton, though. Statistically, Cornell is at or near the top of the Ivy League in nearly all categories. It leads in blocks, assists and kills and is second in hitting percentage.

The Big Red's two losses came against the Crimson and against Yale. Princeton also dropped one to the Bulldogs. The Tigers' other two losses came at the hands of Brown and, as mentioned, Cornell, to give the Tigers three losses on the year. Princeton has, however, defeated Harvard.

One team that few are having problems with is Columbia, Princeton's other opponent this weekend. The Lions have struggled the past few years and continue to do so this season.

In the first meeting between the two teams in New York, the Tigers destroyed Columbia, easily sweeping the Lions, 3-0. Getting swept is becoming standard for Columbia; its last four losses have been sweeps. In fact, the Lions have been swept a dismal 13 times so far this season and have only pushed one of their 19 losses to five games.

Ironically, the team's only conference win of the season was a sweep against Dartmouth.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

The real reason to catch Friday night's Columbia match is the chance to witness a little piece of history. Head coach Glenn Nelson is sitting on 499 wins for his career, needing only one more to reach the 500-win milestone.

Few in college sports reach such a mark, while at Princeton he will be the third part of an elite trio that includes only legendary men's basketball coach Pete Carril (514 wins) and former softball coach Cindy Cohen (564 wins). Nelson has been at Princeton since 1982, when he began coaching women's volleyball. He now coaches both the men's and women's teams.