Men's Volleyball: Tigers fall in battle at Dillon

If there’s anything that can be said about the men’s volleyball team, it’s that it must be the best-conditioned team in the league.

Last night, Dillon Gymnasium saw yet another marathon match as the Tigers (10-8 overall, 4-4 Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Tait Division) faced Stevens Institute of Technology (20-11 overall). Unfortunately for Princeton, it was on the losing side, falling to the Ducks, 30-25, 26-30, 26-30, 30-23, 11-15.

Princeton looked to its senior leadership — outside hitter Carl Hamming and middle blocker Jeff McCown — for guidance. McCown had a .667 attack percentage while Hamming, who sat out the third game after landing on his ankle, contributed a .400 percentage. McCown and Hamming were instrumental in the Tigers’ heavily utilized three-person blocking strategy: The team recorded 16 combined blocks while junior outside hitter Vincent Tuminelli recorded the team’s only solo block.

Despite these offensive efforts, a trio of Ducks — opposite SteFan PremDas, setter Brandt Grobeis and middle hitter Timothy Karl — was able to shut down Princeton. Stevens Tech recorded 21 blocks to the Tigers’ nine, and even when the Princeton offense began to fight back in the fourth game, the Ducks forced the Tigers into long volleys across the net.

Princeton began the match strong, winning the first set easily. After a disputed point that brought the second game to 6-6, the Ducks’ defense pushed Princeton into a battle. Stevens Tech pushed ahead for the first time on a spike that left the score at 14-15 and forced Princeton to trail for the rest of the set. Though spikes from freshman middle blocker Michael Dye cut into the Ducks’ lead, Stevens Tech pulled ahead to 23-20. A Princeton timeout did nothing to deter the Ducks’ flow of play, though, and Hamming served into the net to end the game at 26-30.

A fired-up Princeton squad took the court in the third game, but morale dropped as soon as Stevens Tech responded with the same energy, and the Ducks eventually pulled ahead to 8-5. As has so often been the case this season, defense doomed the Tigers. Instead of effectively blocking the Ducks’ offense, they relied on long hit balls and service errors to obtain side-outs and go on the offensive. After Dye’s serves pulled the Tigers to within four points at 25-21, the Ducks regained control and ended the game 30-26.

The fourth set saw renewed energy from McCown and Tuminelli. Both hit heavy spikes as the Stevens defense was unable to respond. Tuminelli also went on the defensive, using a block to increase the Tigers’ lead to 11-7. Hamming’s serving increased it to 12-7 before the Ducks called a timeout. While the Ducks were able to rally to within three points of the Tigers at 16-13, the Princeton defense was not about to give up the game easily. Longer rallies between the teams showed an improved Princeton defense, which came up with double and triple blocks by combinations of sophomore setter Scott Liljestrom, McCown, Hamming and Dye. A Tuminelli spike ended the game at 30-23.

Tuminelli opened game five determined not to lose, firing a spike onto the Ducks’ defense. The game went back and forth until Stevens was able to pull ahead, 5-4 for the first time. They would lead the rest of the match, pulling ahead to 4-9 before Princeton could regain possession. After the Tigers fell to 10-5, Tuminelli was determined not to let the Tigers go down without a fight and led a run to pull back to 10-9. The effort would not be enough, though, and errors resulted in a 15-11 loss.

The Tigers entered the week at second place in the division, and they are still looking for one win from their two divisional games this week to clinch a spot in postseason play.

Princeton will be able to retain its No. 2 seed if it can top both Juniata and George Mason in road games this weekend.