Women's Volleyball: Rudnick returns as hitters lead Princeton

The women’s volleyball team traveled to the Lehigh/Lafayette Crosstown Tournament last Friday and Saturday, finishing the weekend with two wins and a loss. The Tigers (7-4) defeated Hartford 3-2 in a close match to open the tournament. On the following day, Princeton split the matches, falling 3-1 to Lehigh in the morning before rallying to beat La Salle 3-0 later that day.

Junior All-Ivy outside hitter Lydia Rudnick was back in action this weekend after sitting out the Rutgers Invitational tournament due to injury. Though head coach Sabrina King ’01 only played Rudnick in three of the five sets on Friday to prevent new injury, Rudnick had 11 kills, 12 digs and five blocks for the Tigers.

“With regards to the past weekend’s tournament, I think overall we did well, but we definitely have things to work on, because we should not have dropped the match to Lehigh,” Rudnick said. “We have a lot of potential, and after playing this weekend, we need to work on playing steadily throughout the entire match and not playing so up and down.”

Also aiding the Princeton side against Hartford was senior All-Ivy middle blocker Cathryn Quinn who added 15 kills and four blocks. The Tigers also received significant contributions from freshman outside Sarah Hanna (14 kills), freshman setter Ginny Willis (53 assists), senior libero Hillary Ford (34 digs), junior right side hitter Jennifer Palmquist and sophomore outside hitter Chelsea Parker. King continued to experiment with her lineups and give different players the opportunity to work together on the court.

Princeton and Hartford traded odd and even sets, with notably close first and fourth sets, sending the competition into its fifth and final set. The teams traded sides when the score reached 8-7 in favor of the Tigers. Princeton grabbed the next two points, but Hartford answered with two of its own, bringing the score to 10-9. Hanna had three kills to help the Tigers earn the next five points in a row to win the set and match. The Tigers posted their best hitting percentage of the match in the fifth set (.455) and did not make a single error in 22 swings.

“When we can sideout consistently, we are unstoppable. We just need to stay focused and not let the other team get on long point runs,” Quinn said. “Our serve-receive passing can always improve, so that is something we will continue to work on.”

Quinn and Hanna helped lead the team again on Saturday with 16 kills apiece versus Lehigh; however, it was not enough to overcome the talented Mountain Hawk squad. The Tigers took a slight edge late in the first set 22-21, but Lehigh grabbed the last four points. In the second set, Princeton got an early lead and held on to win 25-20. The third set was also neck-and-neck, tied at 27 before the Mountain Hawks won two points in a row. Lehigh ran away with the final set, tallying nine of the first 10 points. Despite their best efforts to fight back late in the closing set, the Tigers could not hold off a game-ending eight-point run by Lehigh.

The Tigers dominated in their final match of the weekend, not allowing the Explorers to win a single set. A few of the major contributors for Princeton were Quinn, who was without error and tallied 17 kills to earn a .708 attack percentage; Willis, who added 27 assists; and Parker, credited with six kills and five digs. In the first set, Princeton went ahead 4-3 and never went behind. A seven-point run in the middle of the set put the Explorers on their heels. Princeton started off strong in the second set, getting out ahead early to a 12-3 lead. The third set was more similar to the first, as the Tigers collected eight unanswered points in the middle to put the match out of reach for La Salle.

“Although we wish we had beaten Lehigh, for the most part we are pleased with the tournament,” Quinn said. “We are still trying out a bunch of different lineups and we are constantly improving. Our goal is to continue getting better, and this weekend we identified some areas where we can still improve.”

The first opportunity to watch the Tigers in action on their home court in Dillon Gymnasium is tonight at 7 p.m. as they take on their Big East rival, Seton Hall. Then on Friday, the team will take on its first Ivy League opponent of the season, the University of Pennsylvania, the defending Ivy League champ.

“We all look forward to our opener against Penn, and I think that if we work on a few things during practice and keep playing with focus and intensity it will be a good season for us,” Rudnick said.