Tigers crush Violets

A good sports team tries to force its opponent to make errors. Better teams can even adjust to an opponent's strengths — and that's exactly what the men's volleyball team did against New York University.

There was certainly no lack of excitement for the crowd at Dillon Gym on Tuesday night, when the men's volleyball team took on New York University (5-9 overall) in its home opener. The Violets came in with strong scouting, shutting down Princeton's normal game plan, but by consistently continuing to attack, the Tigers (3-4) shut down NYU's attempts to get back into the match and won 3-1.

Princeton made things interesting at every turn. After pulling ahead in each game, the question was whether Princeton would be able to finish it.

In the first game, Princeton had to adjust to NYU's ability to take away the Tigers' typical game plan. The Tigers turned to junior outside hitter and captain Peter Eichler and sophomore outside hitter Phillip Rosenberg to lead the attack. After taking a three-point lead into the latter stretches of the game, however, the Tigers' strategy came undone. Plagued by service errors, Princeton allowed NYU to overcome the deficit on the back of a 5-2 run to take the lead and the first game of the match, 30-26.

"They were better than I thought they'd be," head coach Glenn Nelson said.

With Princeton surprised by the first loss, the Tigers came back for the second game determined to prove that they were the better team. It wasn't all smooth sailing, however.

The Tigers traded points with the Violets early but found themselves down, 15-11, on a good block by NYU. The Violets seemed to have Princeton's number, tallying 18 blocks to Princeton's nine.

Princeton rallied to get back into the game and tied the score at 17 on an ace by sophomore middle blocker Mike Vincent. The Tigers were able to pull ahead and take a four-point lead, their first since an NYU service error put them up 5-4 at the beginning of the match. The Tigers let NYU back in the game by losing six of seven points to the Violets, making the score 28-27.

The second game went into overtime before Eichler and Rosenberg connected for kills on three of four points to finish with a 33-31 victory. Eichler ended the match with a match-high 26 kills and 10 digs, and Rosenberg turned in his best performance so far as a Tiger, recording 22 kills and a .412 attack percentage with eight digs and two block assists.

Sophomore setter Brandon Denham also finished with an impressive match, tallying up 66 assists and eight digs.

The next two games revealed more of the same. The Tigers showed that they were the stronger team but failed to finish games decisively. They relinquished leads of up to five points before capping off the third game with a 30-27 win.

"Closing down games when we're up is still something we're working on," Eichler said. "That'll come. It'd be nice to be able to do it all, but it's constant progress."

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The Tigers gave the fans another exciting finish, pushing the fourth and final game into overtime before clinching the match with a 31-29 win.

With Princeton's defense emerging and showing its strength toward the end of the game, the Tigers fought off another Violet resurgence, as NYU tied the game at 21 and denied three straight match points for Princeton, finally tying the score at 29.

Fortunately for the Orange and Black, something stirred in Vincent, as he came alive to record three of his four kills that match in the last seven points. He finished off NYU by sneaking one of his three aces over the net and to the floor to win the game.

"NYU didn't make mistakes," Nelson said. "They also had strong blocking and were able to commit two at times. We had to change our game plan. I'm happy we won."

Princeton outhit NYU 76 kills to 57, but NYU's hitting percentage of .285 to the Tigers' .256 kept the Violets in the game.

Princeton will look to carry both the momentum of the strong road victory over St. Francis this weekend and their win over NYU into their battle against Garden State rival Rutgers-Newark next Tuesday as they look to reach .500.