Women's Volleyball: Season finishes with loss against Penn

On paper, Princeton’s loss to Penn last night, by a score of 25-17, 25-23, 16-25, 25-21, may look similar to the first match it played against the Quakers this season to open league play. But apart from the Quakers getting the win, the two matches couldn’t have been more different.

The Tigers (11-15 overall, 9-5 Ivy League) were thrashed the last time they played Penn (22-5, 13-1), the most dominant team in the league. (The Quakers clinched the division in a win over Dartmouth last weekend.) Since that first loss to Penn, the Tigers have turned their season completely around, going 9-5 in league play. And, unlike the last game, Princeton matched the Quakers in almost every category of play, earning 54 kills to Penn’s 61, 159 attacks to its 166 and averaging a .189 hit percentage to Penn’s .229.

“I think we were definitely more prepared to put up a fight,” senior outside hitter and co-captain Sheena Donohue said. “The first time we played them, we weren’t expecting them to be as big of a force as they were, but this time we were definitely more prepared to play with them. We are much stronger as one unit then at beginning of the season.”

After three attack errors by Penn and a kill driven in by Donohue, Princeton started the first set with a promising 4-0 lead. Though the Quakers went on a scoring spree to knot up the game at four, the two teams seemed evenly matched and traded points for several subsequent plays. Unfortunately, tying the game at nine was as close as the Tigers would get to overcoming Penn. Soon, the Quakers had established a solid 15-10 lead.

Though head coach Julie Ward tried subbing in different players and called a timeout once the game had reached 21-15 in favor of Penn, Princeton continued to hit balls out of bounds or into the net, while the Quakers continued to spread their offense and hit consistently. Penn came away victorious in the first set, 25-17.

The Tigers went down, 5-1, in the second set, but after a timeout called by Ward, Princeton got back to what it does best — playing strong offense in a 5-1 rotation.

After fighting their way back into the game, the Tigers earned their largest lead at 17-12. A series of Penn kills evened up the score, but for the rest of the match the teams were neck and neck. Penn, however, came away with the second set, 25-23.

Two games in the hole, this do-or-die situation seemed to light a fire under the Tigers, and their third match was by far their strongest offensive start. The Tigers went up 9-3 to start the set and nabbed a 25-16 win.

“We just kind of had the momentum for that set,” Donohue said. “We were working really well together. We had time in between the second and third to collect ourselves and realize that we didn’t want to go home 3-0.”

After falling apart in the third set, the Quaker offense coalesced, and Princeton’s defense was unable to stop it.

Led by outside hitter Julia Swanson, who had 14 kills on the night, Penn took an early 8-4 lead, but the Tigers caught up to the Quakers. After a kill by freshman outside hitter Lydia Rudnick knotted the game at 16, the Quakers took off. Dominant hitting gave the Quakers a lead they would never relinquish, and they ended the match with a 25-21 in the final game.

Despite the loss, both senior starters led the offense in the final game of their careers. Donohue dominated with 20 kills and 13 digs, while senior right-side hitter Taylor Carroll aided her fellow co-captain with nine kills and 25 attacks. Also pacing the offensive effort was Rudnick, who earned a double-double with 12 kills and 13 digs.

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In all, the Tigers expressed satisfaction with their improvement over the season.

“It’s definitely a different team from preseason,” Donohue said. “We were going through a lot of adjustments then, and the coaches were still trying to figure out our strengths. But once we started working together, we definitely were more of a unit when we played in the Ivy League.”