Women's Volleyball: Young squad looks to rebound

The beginning of each season is a time when lofty goals are still plausible and the impossible seems possible. While the women’s volleyball team certainly harbors these sentiments, the obstacles in its path make an undefeated season far more difficult to imagine.

Glenn Nelson, the team’s coach of 27 years and Princeton’s all-time winningest coach, retired last year, and the Tigers are facing substantial question marks on the court. Not only are four of last year’s starters gone, but six of the starters from the 2007 Ivy League championship team have also graduated.

Those veterans have been replaced by four talented but inexperienced freshmen, two of whom will start. Of the three returning starters, two are sophomores, leaving senior outside hitter and co-captain Sheena Donohue — the only remaining upperclassman veteran starter — with an enormous amount of responsibility to lead her young and rebuilding team.

The person left with the unfortunate duty of bringing this team together while also seeking to break out of the shadow of Nelson and his 11 Ivy League championships is new head coach Jolie Ward. Ward comes to Princeton from Manhattan College, where she improved the team’s record from 6-24 to 11-17 during her one year with the Jaspers. Not only does Coach Ward have the pressure of filling some big shoes, but the players have also had to adjust to a new coaching program.

With two tournaments and one home game under their belts, the Tigers have had plenty of opportunities to evaluate their youthful squad. Princeton lost six of its seven preseason matchups, with many of those losses played out in tight matches. Princeton has already blown two matches in which it won the first two sets and continually faltered during match points.

“We’ve had a lot of really close games in the preseason,” sophomore defensive specialist Hillary Ford said. “[We’re working on] playing all the way through the match with the same intensity and finishing.”

While its hard not to cringe when looking at the Tigers’ preseason record, the numbers don’t truly portray the potential in this year’s team. The Tigers were playing this preseason without sophomore setter Michaela Venuti, who suffered a concussion on the second day of practice.

“It was really unfortunate that Michaela got a concussion on the second day,” Carroll said. “It kind of slowed the process of getting everyone comfortable with each other because we haven’t been able to do as many game situations in practice.”

The preseason also showcased that the freshman class has plenty to offer, especially in the case of outside hitter Lydia Rudnick. Rudnick was explosive during last weekend’s Villanova tournament, recording 20 kills and 18 digs against George Washington and averaging more than three kills per set — the same as Donohue.

Princeton will seek to work out its kinks before heading to the West Virginia Classic this weekend. A few wins on Saturday and Sunday would definitely help boost confidence and build momentum before the Tigers head into the all-important Ivy League season.

The Tigers kick off Ivy League play when they host Penn on Oct. 3, leaving them four preseason matches and 10 practices over the next two weeks to turn what has thus far been something of a sputtering engine into a well-oiled machine.