“They didn’t put up much of a fight,” senior middle blocker Lindsey Ensign said. “We were all really surprised at how bad they were. They just choked under the pressure. They couldn’t pass, they couldn’t hit, they couldn’t set. Everything went wrong for them, and everything went right for us.”
Princeton crushed the Quakers (4-9, 0-1), winning 25-16, 25-19, 25-10 for the victory Saturday at the Palestra. The Tigers’ relentless defense put up eight blocks — Penn posted three — and held the Quakers to a .010 attack percentage.
“Our blocking was really, really good, which always shuts the other team down and swings the momentum in the other direction,” junior outside hitter Sheena Donohue said. “Usually, they are the better blocking team, but we just kept finding holes in their defense.”
The offense’s .269 hitting percentage kept Princeton in control throughout the match. The Tigers’ offense this weekend improvemed vastly over its performance in non-conference games, when Princeton posted two losses caused in large part by low attack percentages and high error counts.
“We have been working on better shots and pass components,” Donohue said. “We had to work on hitting around blocks because that’s what we had trouble with against Temple and Syracuse, who we lost to.”
Leading the Tigers to the decisive win was senior outside hitter and captain Parker Henritze, who posted the only double-double of the match with 13 kills and 11 digs. Henritze kept the Quaker defense on its toes, hitting .391 and earning the match-winning kill. Ensign, who leads the team with a .403 attack percentage, added six kills and six blocks, while senior setter Bailey Robinson led the offense with 31 assists.
The Tigers started the match on fire, hitting .357 in the first game. Penn continually put forth sloppy attacks, and four of its players finished the match with negative hitting percentages.
“We really came out with the complete goal to crush them,” Donohue said. “We wanted to show that we hadn’t regressed from last year, and, right from the beginning, we made it evident we were going to take the match.”
Though Princeton wasn’t quite as strong during its second game, allowing the Quakers to lead twice early on, Penn’s inability to make clean plays helped the Tigers. Princeton completed a pair of 3-0 runs to earn the win but was assisted to the victory by a slew of sideouts on Quaker serves and scored the game point on a Penn service error. The third set was short and sweet, as the defense put up four blocks and held Penn to a -.176 hitting percentage.
“We were winning a bunch of long rallies that we don’t normally win,” Ensign said. “Everyone really dug in, especially at the end of the game when everyone usually gets really tired.”
The Tigers continue their Ivy League lineup this weekend against Columbia and Cornell. Despite Princeton’s overall domination of Penn, the Tigers aren’t making any assumptions about their upcoming competition.
“I think that we are glad we have the win under our belts, but I don’t think in any way we should start acting like league champions,” Ensign said. “We still have a lot of improvements to make.”
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