The Tigers are coming off a surprise season in which they placed second in their division and advanced to the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association finals. Penn State defeated Princeton in the EIVA finals for its 12th-straight EIVA championship and went on to become the runner-up for the national championship. Princeton’s finish was its best since winning the EIVA finals in 1998.
Last year’s team was led by outside hitter Carl Hamming ’10 and middle blocker Jeff McCown ’10. Besides offering leadership and experience, Hamming and McCown posted some of the best statistics of their collegiate careers last year and led the team in many offensive and defensive categories.
With the graduation of Hamming and McCown, as well as libero Reid Fritz, outside hitter Dave Hughes and outside hitter Jeff Zhao, the Tigers feature a new look this year. While the addition of five recruited freshman and two walk-ons may cause Princeton to be perceived as a young and inexperienced team, junior setter Scott Liljestrom is convinced a tough offseason has prepared the Tigers well.
“This year’s team demographic is significantly different than last year’s,” Liljestrom said. “We definitely miss Carl Hamming’s calm on the court, and Jeff McCown is such a high-functioning person in general. But whatever this year’s team lacks in experience we make up for in hard work and competitive spirit.”
Princeton will rely on Liljestrom, senior outside hitter Vincent Tuminelli and sophomore outside hitter Pat Schwagler, to lead the Tigers back to the EIVA finals and hopefully to an NCAA Final Four. With a strong recruiting class, however, the freshmen are likely to get playing time.
“The freshmen will have many opportunities to contribute and will have a positive impact on the team in general,” Liljestrom said. “We have a couple liberos, an outside hitter, a middle blocker and a setter in the freshman class with a wide variety of skills that will be valuable to our team this year.”
The Tigers look to build on last year’s success and win the EIVA finals to advance to the Final Four. Tough preseason workouts and practices have Princeton confident that it will be able to compete with the likes of Penn State.
“While reaching the EIVA finals last year was a success, this year we hope to improve on that success and win the EIVA and go to the Final Four,” Liljestrom said. “We have been working on running a quicker offense and distributing the ball efficiently to be effective against high-level teams like Penn State that have a large block. We have a good group of hitters, so once we get our ball control to where it needs to be on the defensive side we will be able to compete at a very high level.”
Princeton doesn’t face the Nittany Lions until it travels to University Park in mid-February. While it is likely that the Tigers will have to beat Penn State to achieve its goal of reaching the Final Four, senior middle blocker Keenan McCarthy recognizes the need to not look past any teams.
“It’s always exciting to be given the opportunity to play a dominant program like Penn State, but honestly, all I can think about right now is our first match against the University of California in San Diego,” McCarthy said. “And after that I’ll be thinking about our match against Cal Baptist the next day. And when we get into league play it will be especially important to move forward one game at a time, because every match will be a hard-fought battle. Anybody can beat anybody on any given day in the EIVA, so it’s crucial to not overlook anybody.”
Despite this, McCarthy said he looks forward to the matchups with Penn State, as they will test the hard work the team has put in during the offseason.
“When we do play Penn State, I think we will be more prepared than ever before,” McCarthy said. “The experience we gained last year in the EIVA finals is invaluable, and we have been working hard in the weight room to strengthen our matchups against the talented athletes at Penn State.”
Princeton opens its season on Jan. 26 when it heads to La Jolla, Calif., to face University of California, San Diego.
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