The women’s volleyball team split its two matches this weekend, but the outcome was undeniably a triumph.
In the first half of a four-game road trip, the Tigers (1-2 Ivy League, 3-11 overall) were swept by Yale (2-1, 12-2) before rebounding at Brown (0-3, 4-10) in four close sets. While the loss to the Bulldogs marked the third consecutive time Princeton has fallen to Yale, the Tigers had moments of excellent play and showed enormous potential in three tight sets against the reigning Ivy champs.
“Overall we played a lot better than we’ve played all season,” sophomore middle blocker Cathryn Quinn said. “We really stepped it up. Despite our loss, we were with them the whole time, and there were multiple instances when we were up.”
The victory over the Bears was not only Princeton’s first Ivy League win, but also the Tigers’ first road win of the season.
“Honestly I think it’s a relief more than anything else,” Quinn said. “We didn’t play that great against Brown, but at the end of the day, a win is a win.”
Thanks in no small part to last year’s unanimous Ivy League Player of the Year — Yale outside hitter Cat Dailey posted a match-high 14 kills — the Bulldogs walked away from their victory over Princeton with a .314 hitting percentage. The Tigers had a .182 hitting percentage, and Yale has now held every team it has played to a hitting percentage under .200.
Coming off a dominant 3-0 win over Brown, Yale came out of the gates running and quickly earned three unanswered points for the lead. Though a service error and a kill by senior outside hitter and co-captain Sheena Donohue cut the Bulldogs’ lead to 4-2, Yale’s offense quickly took control of the set, dominating the scoreboard with a 4-0 run to grab an 8-2 lead. The Tigers, however, were not ready to go down without a fight and traded points with the Bulldogs until managing to tie the game at 16. That was as close to leading the set as Princeton would get, as the Bulldogs responded with a 5-0 run that sealed the win for the Ivy League champs.
Eager to avoid a two-game deficit — the kiss of death in volleyball — the Tigers hit the court with a vengeance in the second set, grabbing an 11-8 lead early in the match. The two teams traded points before a three-point run gave Princeton a 14-10 lead, at which time the Bulldogs took a timeout in an effort to curb the Tigers’ growing momentum. Sadly for fans of the Orange and Black, the tactic worked. After the timeout, Yale took six of eight rallies to tie the game at 16. A kill by Dailey gave Yale its first lead since the score was 3-2 in the beginning of the set. Once again, the Bulldogs had no trouble maintaining that lead for the remainder of the game.
“The second game, I think we had the lead about 14 times,” freshman setter Molly Bagshaw said. “But they had a really good right-side hitter and two really good outside hitters, and when you have hitters as good as that, they just really step it up in the end.”
Though Yale started the third set by getting on the board, the Bulldogs fought for a slim lead over Princeton throughout the final game. Just like the previous two sets, though, at 16 points something seemed to click with the Bulldog squad, as Yale smashed down four unanswered points. While Princeton rallied to put a few more points on the board, a blocked kill gave Yale the sweep.
“The only thing that killed us was that they had a few short runs of points at the end of each game,” Quinn said. “We were with them the whole game until it got into the 20s. We made a few mistakes at really bad times … It was frustrating because it was the same thing in all three sets. It was at the exact same point at every game [that we would fall behind]. It just proved to us that we will be able to get them the next time around.”
After the loss to the Bulldogs, the Tigers headed to Providence, R.I., to play Brown. Though Princeton ultimately rallied for the win, toward the end of the first set it looked as though the Bears would make a comeback from behind to win — something the Tigers have fallen to far too many times this season.
Eager to redeem itself after the previous day’s loss to Yale, Princeton came out of the gates red-hot and took a decisive 24-14 lead — just one point away from securing a victory. Brown wasn’t ready to give up so easily: The Bears fought back and trimmed their deficit to two points.
“I think our passing struggled a little bit,” Quinn said. “We also struggled with varying our offense. They did a very good job scouting us, so they had one very good blocker who really shut us down at points. It’s really frustrating to get blocked by the same girl over and over again. But we were able to come back from that.”
Before Brown could do more damage, freshman outside hitter Lydia Rudnick smashed in a kill to give the Tigers a win in the first set.
The Bears grabbed an early lead in the second before Princeton rallied back to knot the game at 11. The two teams traded points until the Tigers scored two consecutive points for the victory.
As terrifyingly close as the first two sets were, the third was even worse. The two teams traded points throughout the match, and the game was tied a total of 13 times. This time Brown rallied, scoring the final three points for a 25-22 win to make the match 2-1. The Bears held Princeton to a mere .085 hitting percentage in the third set due in large part to some incredibly effective blocking.
Riding the momentum of its win into the next set, Brown took a decisive 18-11 lead and looked poised to push the match to five sets. The Tigers, though, came back to tie the game at 22. After the Bears put one last point on the board, Donohue delivered the win for Princeton, scoring the final four points to end the set at 25-23.
“I think we just mentally were so motivated, because we have had a lot of matches before where we win first two but lose in fifth,” Bagshaw said. “I really wanted to win that game, because going to five is really draining, and when you get to the fifth, the game can go either way. [Donohue] became really clutch during those final plays.”
Donohue shined throughout the match, recording 20 kills and 21 digs. Also stellar was senior right-side hitter and co-captain Taylor Carroll, who led the defense with 21 digs and four blocks.
“I feel really good about [the weekend],” Bagshaw said. “We did a lot of good things that we hadn’t done before. What usually happens is we would have the lead, and the other team comes back [to win it] … Being able to come back like that was a big turning point for us.”
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