Tigers host Cornell, Columbia

After suffering their first loss of the season against Dartmouth a week ago, the players on the women's volleyball team (12-1 overall, 2-1 Ivy League) learned a valuable lesson: they don't like to lose.

This keen insight allowed Princeton to rally back and squash Harvard 3-0. But will their renewed energy be enough to stop highly competitive squads from Cornell (8-6, 3-1) and Columbia (5-8, 0-4) at home this weekend?

Throughout the season, young Tigers have been stepping up to help the team succeed. Outside hitter freshman Sheena Donohue, a past Ivy League Rookie of the Week, has certainly proven herself on this successful team. At Harvard, she scored about 15 percent of the team's points and had among the top number of digs.

Donohue's digs were second only to junior outside hitter Emily Turner, whose performance at Harvard also secured her position as a central member for the Orange and Black. The third member of the outside hitter trio is sophomore Parker Henritze. Named to a couple all-tournament teams already, Henritze received last year's Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors. She remains one of the strongest players on the team.

The pairing of sophomore setter Bailey Robinson and sophomore middle blocker Lindsey Ensign continues to prove formidable on the court. At Harvard, Ensign led the Tigers in scoring. Robinson's perfectly placed sets earned her honors as the Colgate Invitational MVP and as the backbone of her team. While the team touts highly successful players, all of the Tigers will need to bring their A game going into Friday night's game against Cornell.

Bad news: Cornell doesn't like to lose either. Last year, the team secured a No. 1 finish in the Ivy League. This year, the team has only fallen to Yale. Like the Tigers, Cornell's team is stacked with heavy hitters. Setters Kara Zaragoza and Hilary Holland pace the Big Red in points, while outside hitters Elizabeth Bishop and Alex Dyer lead the way in kills. Bishop won last year's Ivy League Player of the Year honors.

On defense, Cornell is led by middle blockers Katie Rademacher and Joanna Weiss, who combine for nearly three blocks per game. Earlier this season, Weiss was named Ivy League Player of the Week.

"I think that it's going to be a really hard game," Robinson said. "They have been really good, but I definitely think we have a good chance."

In order for the Tigers to be competitive with Cornell, they will have to stay focused throughout the game, a lesson they learned all too well against the Big Green last week.

"After Dartmouth, we realized how much we hate losing," Robinson said. "That really fired us up to beat Harvard. Against Dartmouth, we didn't play our own game. Going into Harvard, we realized that we needed to take care of things on our side of the net."

While focus is certainly important in their game against a competitive Cornell team on Friday, the Tigers must maintain their concentration in Saturday's game against Columbia as well.

Though not as highly seeded in the league, the Lions proved worthy of Princeton's attention with a 3-0 win when the teams met last year. Top Columbia players such as Natalie Gerling, Amalia Viti and Kelly Russell will look to shut down an overconfident Tiger team. Viti was named to the All-Ivy second team in 2005, the year in which she also broke her school's record for kills.

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The Orange and Black face the Big Red tonight at 7 p.m. The Tigers take on the Lions tomorrow at 4 p.m. Hopefully, by applying their newly learned lesson, Princeton's players can secure a pair of victories and go home happy.