When the Warriors arrived at Dillon Gym, they frightened the fans.
No. 2 in the Tait Division of the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA), the East Stroudsburg Warriors were sharp coming off the bus and led the men's volleyball team by as many as five points midway into the first game.
After two Princeton runs late in the opening game, however, it was all Tigers for the rest of the match, as the home team came back to win the first game and sweep the match, 3-0, Saturday afternoon.
The Tigers (5-5 overall, 3-2 EIVA,) were stiff coming onto the court, having only held one official practice all week. This showed in their early service errors and sloppy play.
"We had a little rust coming into the game," junior captain and outside hitter Peter Eichler said.
Unlike Princeton, East Stroudsburg (6-4, 2-2) was sharp in the early going and took advantage of Tiger miscues. The Warriors pulled out to a 14-9 lead.
The tide turned when Princeton handed the ball to sophomore setter Brandon Denham to serve with the Tigers down, 18-15. Princeton won four straight points and took its first lead of the game, 19-18.
The Princeton offense had woken up.
While the Tigers gave the lead back to the Warriors before the game was over, a kill by senior middle hitter Evan Pasion — who hit .500 in the match with 5 kills — and two East Stroudsburg errors gave the Tigers the game, 31-29.
Princeton had stolen the first game from the Warriors, but it used the rest of the match to prove they were the better team.
When the Tigers hit the court for the second game, there was no question that the rust was gone.
"I was pretty happy with the way we cleaned it off," Eichler said.
Princeton jumped out to a 5-0 lead at the beginning of the game before the Warriors called a timeout. From there, East Stroudsburg kept pace with the Tigers, but never came within three points. Princeton sailed to a 30-20 victory to take a two-game lead.
"That is the difference between hitting our jump serves and missing them," head coach Glenn Nelson said of the score difference in the first two games.
The third game was also a decisive victory, as the Orange and Black led by as many as nine points toward the end of the game.
The Tigers managed to win points even when the play was erratic. Many of Princeton's points consisted of long rallies with good defense and communication to get the ball back over the net and keep the point going.
This defense led to a number of East Stroudsburg errors and helped keep it out of the game.
"[Sophomore middle blocker Mike] Vincent and Pasion did a really good job in the middle with blocks, which makes it so much easier to dig," Eichler said.
The Tigers had 11 and a half blocks overall. Pasion and Denham each had solo blocks, and Vincent led the way with two.
The whole team played much cleaner volleyball as the game wore on. After hitting .194 in the first game, Princeton picked up the pace with a .355 hitting percentage in the second game and a .467 percentage in the third. ESU hit .139 on the match.
Eichler and sophomore outside hitter Phillip Rosenberg both hit .400 on the match with 16 and 11 kills, respectively. Eichler also led the team with 12 digs and four aces.
"We had hot hitting tonight," Nelson said.
The Tigers will try to apply the momentum from this match to the remainder of their six-game homestand to separate themselves from the crowd of teams in the middle of the EIVA Tait Division.
They play Rutgers-Newark — whom they beat 3-1 two weeks ago — Tuesday night at home and then George Mason on March 9th.
In order to climb up the standings, the Tigers will need to keep up the strong defense and impressive hitting from the outside they showed against East Stroudsburg.
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