Princeton out in EIVA first round

Rutgers-Newark knocked the men's volleyball team out of the EIVA playoffs in the quarterfinal match Saturday, ending the Tigers' season with an overall record of 7-13. Princeton had worked its way into the No. 5 seed this season with a 3-9 record in the EIVA Tait division, but the Scarlet Raiders (12-14 overall, 7-5), seeded fourth, crushed any hopes the Tigers had for advancing to the semifinals.

While the first two sets were extremely close, Princeton ran out of steam and handed the Scarlet Raiders the last set for a final score of 30-27, 34-32, 30-21.

"We came out a little flat in the third game," freshman outside hitter Peter Eichler said. "The second was an especially emotional game, and when you play a game like that and don't win, it's very hard to come out with fire in the next game. You feel a little bit demoralized."

The Tigers struggled against the Rutgers-Newark's strong attack. With a .237 attack average, Princeton was unable to stand up to Rutgers-Newark's .361 percentage. "They are a strong blocking team, they hit really well, and they found gaps in our blocks," Eichler said.

"It was one tough break after another," senior middle hitter Sean Vitousek said about his final game as a Tiger volleyball player. "If one or two more plays or calls would have went our way the game could have been much different. But it was a fun season. I'll take away a lot more than just our last loss. That's the great thing about selective amnesia."

Eichler and Vitousek led Princeton with 13 kills each, and senior outside hitter Blake Robinson followed closely behind with 12. Junior setter Jack Pichard recorded 45 assists, and junior libero Mark Stevens led the defense with 14 digs.

Earlier in the season, the Tigers had fallen to Rutgers-Newark twice, losing their first meeting in a five-set struggle (31-29, 30-28, 25-30, 23-30, 15-8). The Scarlet Raiders won a rematch against Princeton weeks later in three close sets with a score of 30-27, 30-27 and 31-29. Though a win for the Tigers still seemed within reach due to Rutgers-Newark's small margin of victory in each game, the Scarlet Raiders held their grip on Princeton and didn't let the Tigers steal the teams' final match.

"We haven't been able to find our game against them after three match-ups," Eichler said.

With the win, Rutgers-Newark advanced to the EIVA semifinals, playing No. 3 Penn State on Thursday night.

"We were disappointed with the results, we made a few too many errors this time. We would've liked to have gone further in this tournament," Eichler said. "But this season has been a blast, most of all it's been very fun. Even though we could've played better during the season, I will come away from it with a good feeling."

Eichler led Princeton with 262 kills for the season, followed by Vitousek with 219 and Robinson with 201. Vitousek led the team with 86 total blocks. Stevens led the Tigers with 152 digs, and Pichard recorded 796 assists. Pichard also led the team with 15 service aces, followed closely by sophomore Reid Joseph's 14.

— Princetonian contributor Carly Grabowski contributed reporting to this article.