Princeton aims for perfect

When the New England Patriots defeated the Indianapolis Colts a week and a half ago, many fans and experts ruminated about the possibility of the Patriots having the first undefeated season since the 1972 Miami Dolphins, and the first since the NFL adopted the 16-game format.

But while blue-and-red-clad University students gushed about Tom Brady, they may have missed the on-campus equivalent: the women's volleyball team.

No, the Tigers aren't the New England Patriots, but they have clinched the Ivy League title and are riding a 19-game winning streak into their finals regular season contest at Penn.

In 1987, the first year of Ivy League volleyball round-robin play, Penn finished 7-0. Since then, five other teams have gone undefeated in regular season play, but each did so without having to play each team at home and away. Since 2001, however, the Ivy League has adapted a double round-robin format, and a team has yet to run the table, both home and away.

The Tigers want to be the first.

Teams have gone 13-1 twice— Penn did in 2002 and 2003 — and tonight those same Quakers hope to thwart Princeton's record-setting efforts. In both 2002 and 2003, Penn lost to perennial contender Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y.; in 2002, the Quakers saw their 20-game win streak snapped. But winning against tough teams on the road is the challenge of the 14-game season, and that's exactly what the Tigers hope to do in the Palestra.

Princeton set up this historic opportunity with two road wins this past weekend, sweeping Brown before beating third-place Yale, 3-1. The victories were head coach Glenn Nelson's 560th and 561st, breaking the previous record of 559 career wins for a Princeton coach in any sport.

Penn is currently 10-3 in Ivy play, good enough for second in the league standings, after having also suffered two losses to Yale, whom the Tigers have already beaten twice.

Should tonight's contest resemble the teams' first, fans can expect a barn-burner. Princeton downed Penn 26-30, 33-31, 30-16, 34-36, 15-11, at Dillon Gym on Sept. 29, the league opener for both teams.

The Quakers have lost twice at the Palestra this year, first to Albany and later to third-place Yale in a 3-0 drubbing, so the task of beating Penn's volleyball team at home — in the same venue where its basketball team rarely concedes — is not as impenetrable as the 7-2 home record might imply.

Win or lose, the Tigers' season is not over. Having clinched the Ivy League title — no small accomplishment in itself — the Tigers will play in the NCAA Tournament, whose first rounds are held Nov. 29-30. Princeton cannot lose what it has already won: the right to be called the Ivy League's best team of 2007. But should it win, it can go down as one of the Ancient Eight's best teams of all time.

And that title — well, even Tom Brady can appreciate that.