Women's Volleyball: Juniata falls in tight four-set match at Dillon

The AARP-eligible Dillon Gymnasium may not be the most glamorous venue for a varsity team, but for the women’s volleyball team, there is no place like home.

Only under Dillon’s roof have the Tigers (2-9 overall) remained unbeaten, most recently breaking a six-match winless streak by dominating Juniata (12-2) to claim a 3-1 victory in the Saturday matchup. The weekend rally marked the end of a preseason that has been a struggle for the rebuilding Tigers.

“I think the [players are] still feeling out their confidence levels, and I think that is the biggest problem for them at this point,” head coach Jolie Ward said. “The problems we are having are at serve-receive, and if there is anything [else] we are stuck in, it is only because they are losing focus and losing self-confidence, and that is sort of hurting them a little bit.”

With the match against Penn (9-3) looming in the all-too-near future, Princeton hit the court hungry for a momentum-building win. That eagerness showed itself early in the match as the Tigers continually set up good spikes while also staying ready defensively with the block. While the Eagles tied up the game at 11 thanks to some communication errors and bad defensive plays by Princeton, the Tiger attack was indomitable thereafter, as it pulled ahead to win the set 25-18.

While Princeton averaged an impressive .333 attacking percentage — by far its highest throughout the match — the .385 attacking percentage of the Juniata squad during the same game is a testament to how well the Tiger blocking was throughout the faceoff with Juniata.

“We were siding out, just making sure we got the play right after the serve and didn’t let the rallies go too long,” senior co-captain and outside-hitter Sheena Donohue said. “We terminated points as early as we could, and that really contributed, because we have a tendency when rallies go longer to kind of let down.”

Unfortunately for the Tigers, the drop-off between the quality of play during the first and second sets was almost great as that between the New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals. The Eagles put forth a streak of kills and blocks that gave them a 7-4 lead early in the set. While Ward wisely called a timeout to try to pull her team together, whatever was said on the sidelines was not enough to change the outcome of the 19-25 loss. Juniata proved that, though it might not be a Division I squad, it’s not to be taken for granted.

“They are a really great Division III team,” Donohue said. “They are like top four [in] Division III every year. They are really scrappy, and they don’t necessarily bomb balls, but they know where to put balls and know how to get points. They use their strengths.”

Both teams came into the third set hungry to gain a lead in the match. While Princeton went up 6-3 early on, the Tigers struggled to stop Juniata’s spikes. Ultimately the Tigers’ defensive troubles landed them in a 9-12 deficit, at which point Ward took a timeout to break the Eagles’ momentum.

Whatever went on during this timeout worked. The Tigers bested Juniata in several long, close rallies, and their blocks were so effective that they might as well have formed a second roof built just for the Eagles’ players. Though the game was close throughout, ultimately a spike by sophomore middle-blocker Cathryn Quinn gave Princeton the set, 25-23. The Tigers rode that momentum heading into the fourth set, in which they raced out to an early lead. The fast-paced final game ended anticlimactically at 25-20 on a Juniata service error.

Though Princeton had some ups and downs throughout the match, the play of Donohue and freshman outside hitter Lydia Rudnick was consistent. Both girls dominated the board, putting up double-doubles, with Donohue earning 14 kills and 18 digs while Rudnick donated 17 kills and 11 digs.

With the preseason officially behind them, the Tigers must begin to prepare for what they will really be judged by: the Ivy League season.

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“We know how important the Ivy League is,” Quinn said. “I think we still need to work on our servicing, passing and also just keeping our confidence strong throughout the entire game and not getting down at any point. There were a few lapses in that game; we lost in our confidence, and our passing kind of broke down, so just focusing on that a little more [will be important].”

The powers of Dillon may help Princeton in its first Ivy matchup against Penn on Saturday, but the following four road games mean that the team will not be able to rely on that crutch for long.