Feature: Sibling rivalries on the varsity stage

Imagine walking out for the pre-game coin toss. You step to the center circle and shake hands, not with a mere stranger from the opposing team but with your sister. This is precisely what happened to Erin Jennings, a senior captain of the field hockey team before Princeton hosted Virginia two weeks ago.

Now picture this: The girl on the other side of the volleyball court trying to stop each of your hits is not only the libero for Yale, but also your little sibling. Lydia Rudnick, a junior outside hitter for the Tigers, faced this exact scenario for the first time on Friday night in her team’s key Ivy League victory.

Sisterhood is a very special relationship in general — constantly full of fun, fighting and friendship — but adding the competitive rivalry inherent in sports creates a unique story for these athletes and their families.

The Jennings sisters have been nicknamed “the triplets” for as long as Erin can remember — even sometimes by their father. To one of their former coaches, they were simply Numbers 1, 2 and 3. Now, all three of the girls are the captains of their universities’ Division 1 field hockey programs: Erin at Princeton, Tara at Duke and Rachel at Virginia.

“We have very similar tendencies, probably from growing up together, but we have very different personalities,” Erin said. “Even more since we’ve been away at school, our individual personalities have come out.”

Erin is the laid-back sister, Rachel is super chatty and social and Tara is very sensitive and falls somewhere in the middle. Older brothers John and Jason complete the Jennings set — Jason overlapped with Tara for two years at Duke and, according to Erin, he played the protective older brother role well. Erin laughed when she mentioned that it was hard for them in high school, but now all five Jennings siblings get along great.

Jokingly, Erin remarked that the sisters all knew since they were 10 years old that they wanted to go to different colleges, anxious to be off on their own and develop their independent identities. Besides field hockey, the girls also played on the same basketball, soccer and track teams. Playing on the same high school and club teams for so many years had ups and downs for the sisters.

“Our high school’s field hockey program is a powerhouse, so it was always really fun to play with my sisters and win championships together,” she said. “We know each other’s tendencies and how we like to play, so it was easy to work together. But we were also super competitive in high school. On the field, we were constantly on each other’s backs and calling each other out.”

For the nationally recognized Emmaus High School field hockey team, the Jennings sisters each played a different position — center back, center midfield and center striker — making their team strong down the middle but also causing the siblings to bicker when things weren’t going well in one section of the field.

Erin’s favorite field hockey memory with her sisters was winning the state championship in their junior year of high school, beating a higher-ranked opponent in a title game that came down to the final seconds. The Jennings girls all played well and connected with each other on the field, Erin said.

These days, competing against each other is the perfect scenario for the Jennings sisters, who always look forward to rivalry games.

“Playing against my sisters is really fun and works well with our competitive spirits,” Erin said. “Unfortunately, we don’t play Duke this year, but we play Virginia a lot. The last three times we played [Virginia] we lost, once in NCAAs, so it was nice to get revenge this year and win. There is always a lot of smack talk before the games and we know that it is all for bragging rights.”

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When the Tigers last played against Virginia, the Jennings sisters marked each other. “There was a lot of funny and friendly smack talk on the field,” Erin said. She added that it was a frustrating game, because Rachel knew what Erin wanted to do with the ball every time she received a pass.

If it seems like a tricky situation for the sisters, imagine how hard it must be to sit in the stands as their parents.

“Whenever we play each other, my mom is really stressed out. My dad is better than her, though,” Erin said. “They tend to show up wearing a UVA shirt and Princeton hat to try and support us both, but last time, my dad showed up wearing all Duke to the game [against Virginia]. They always sit on the 50-yard line so they don’t pick a side. They’ve gotten pretty good at it since Tara and Rachel are in the same league and play each other at least twice a year, so they see lots of Jennings vs. Jennings games.”

Another sisterly athletic rivalry began this fall on the Princeton campus. Lydia Rudnick’s younger sister, Maddie, is a freshman libero for the Yale women’s volleyball team. The two-year age difference between the siblings meant that the Rudnick sisters only played together for one year at La Costa Canyon High School in San Diego.

“During my senior year and Maddie’s sophomore year, we were on the same team,” Lydia said. “It was really fun for us — she was one of the youngest girls on the team, and we had a successful season.”

The LCC volleyball program went 37-1 and won several championship tournaments during the season in which both Rudnicks were featured.

Mr. and Mrs. Rudnick both played volleyball when they were younger, so the girls started to learn the game from the day they could walk and have loved it ever since. Every day in the summer, they head to the beach for a morning workout and then spend the rest of the day playing beach volleyball. The sisters seem quite close — Lydia said that Maddie is her best friend, and they talk all the time.

But despite their special sisterly bond, Maddie decided she wanted to go to a different school than Lydia for college so that she could establish herself as something other than Lydia’s little sister. On her own campus, Maddie has the opportunity to form her own identity.

“I am proud of her for going to a great school,” said Lydia, “even if it is Yale.”

Now, the sisters each perform an important role on different Ivy League teams. Friday’s match, the first meeting betwen the schools, had an interesting dynamic because Maddie was primarily responsible for digging the hits that Lydia was sending across the net.

“Both of our parents were at the game, and I think they were having a tough time since if [Maddie] was playing well, it meant I wasn’t. They just cheered for whichever team won the point,” said Lydia.

The Princeton crowd included several of Lydia’s friends, who decided to give Maddie a hard time by teasing her during the game. On one point, Lydia sent a vicious hit across the net and struck Maddie square in the neck. The elder sister joked that her real plan was to hit her in the face, but her neck was as close as she could get.

Despite her sister’s digs, Lydia had her best match of the season, notching 25 kills to help the Tigers hand Yale its first conference loss and tie the Bulldogs for first place. On Nov. 5, the sisters will face each other again on Maddie’s home court in a match that might determine the Ivy League champion.

“I am really excited to play her again,” Lydia said. “She wants to get revenge on us. It will be interesting to see if her friends heckle me this time instead of the other way around.”

The Rudnicks and Jenningsshare a strong bond in addition to love for the same sports. But even that love is not enough to curb their competitive spirit when their sisters are wearing the wrong-colored uniform and standing in the way of victory.