Men's Volleyball: Crucial third-set rally propels Springfield past Princeton

Despite crushing Springfield (9-6 overall, 3-4 EIVA Tait Division) in the first game, Princeton (5-6, 2-3) struggled for the remainder of the contest, conceding a 22-30, 30-22, 31-29, 30-16 decision to the Pride at home.

The loss to Springfield, which had won at Juniata in five games the night before and is the No. 1-ranked team in Division III competition, dropped the Tigers to sixth in the Tait Division standings.

“I’m not really sure what happened,” senior setter and captain Brandon Denham said. “We didn’t focus. They’re a team we really should have beaten, but we didn’t.”

Senior middle blocker Mike Vincent led Princeton with 15 kills on .458 hitting, while senior outside hitter Phil Rosenberg and sophomore outside hitter Vincent Tuminelli picked up 13 and 14 kills, respectively. Denham recorded 54 assists.

The first and fourth games showcased opposite ends of the playing spectrum for the Tigers. In the first frame, Princeton was efficient on offense and menacing on defense, passing well to set up kills and not conceding any easy points to Springfield attackers.

Rosenberg was quick to kill off a bad Springfield pass, while junior middle blocker Jeff McCown rose numerous times to thwart his opposing counterpart. When Tuminelli finished an easy kill for a 30-22 first-set win, Rosenberg yelled to his teammates to “keep the intensity” as the teams switched sides.

By the fourth set, however, the intensity was gone. The Tigers earned their last lead of the day at 11-10 in the fourth. Junior rightside hitter Carl Hamming dove for a ball and passed it with one hand to Vincent, who clinically finished to the crowd’s delight. But Princeton won only five more points over the remainder of the game, bungling passes, sets, spikes and serves. After hitting a sparkling .577 to open the contest, the Tigers hit .000 — 11 kills and 11 errors on 30 attempts — to close the encounter.

“It definitely felt like [the worst all year],” Denham said. “I’m sure the stats will show it ,too. We played pretty awful.”

After Rosenberg missed on a spike to end the game and the match, the Princeton players looked around at each other, apparently unsure of how they let the game slip away in such a fashion. Everything that had gone right earlier had gone wrong as the game ended.

“[We felt] just a bunch of frustration,” Denham said. “We really handed them the game, and it was disappointing that we played so poorly.”

The second game was somewhat better for the Tigers, but the third game was there for the taking. Neither team led by more than four points, with 16 ties and eight lead changes throughout the frame.

Princeton’s biggest lead came at 16-12 after a rare spike from the setter Denham following a poor Springfield pass. The Pride retook the lead at 19-18, however, after poor Princeton communication resulted in two receiving errors.

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With the score level at 26, Vincent served consecutive aces down the middle of court, but Springfield tied the game at 28 with an ace of its own that hit the net and dribbled onto the Princeton side. A powerful McCown strike gave the Tigers game point, but poor passing at 29-all and a cheeky kill from Springfield setter Eric Shoemaker delivered the game — and crucial momentum — to the Pride.

Despite the tough loss, Princeton must move on with a visit from league power George Mason next Saturday after a Friday game against Stevens Tech. Head coach Glenn Nelson, who at one point emitted a high-pitched yelp of frustration audible throughout the gym, will certainly have a few pointers in the coming week of practice.

“We will start [getting back on track] in practice next week,” Denham said. “We will work on some of the things that broke down, especially our serving and blocking. But we’ll try not to focus on [the Springfield game] anymore. It’s about the next game. We need to focus more on that.”

Despite the looming matchup against George Mason looming, Division III No. 3 Stevens Tech is not a team to be overlooked. The Ducks have twice defeated NYU and took Juniata, who beat Princeton twice, to five games. George Mason is 2-2 in EIVA Tait Division play this season, with both losses coming at the hands of St. Francis, which Princeton defeated in a five-game thriller on Feb. 7.