Women's Volleyball: King ’01: Coming home to coach

Princeton volleyball is a way of life for Sabrina King ’01. The first-year women’s volleyball coach has had Tiger blood running through her veins since 1997, when she won her first Ivy League title as a freshman. She capped a very successful undergraduate volleyball career with additional league titles as a junior and senior. King was also named Ivy League Player of the Year in 1999.

“I’m from Southern California, so it’s the hotbed of volleyball,” King said. “I just started playing with my sister around 12 years old and realized quickly I had a knack for it.”

Her impressive collegiate resume alone, however, would not satisfy the love she has had for volleyball since she was young.

“I loved volleyball from the moment I started,” King said. “I always loved the competition and how team-oriented the sport is.”

In 2002, a year after graduating, King returned to the team as an assistant coach under Glenn Nelson, the winningest coach in Princeton history.

“I didn’t know how great Princeton was until I was here,” King said. “As a coach, I just wanted more time at Princeton.”

She certainly got what she wished for. For seven years, she served as assistant coach for a successful program that achieved two more titles in 2004 and 2007.

After the 2009 season, King decided to leave Princeton and start a new chapter in her life. A true Tiger at heart, her hiatus did not last long, and this season brings her back home.

“I left Princeton mostly because I wanted to do something different and move back west,” King said. “But I missed the camaraderie of the team, and I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to return.”

In her first year as head coach, Princeton has won 13 matches while only losing six. They have also gotten off to a 6-1 start in the Ivy League season, including a win last Friday over Yale, which had been previously undefeated in the Ivy League, to gain a share of first place halfway through league play.

“The transition to Sabrina’s coaching style has been quite smooth,” junior outside hitter Lydia Rudnick said. “She knows what a team needs to do in order to be successful. So far our practices have been a lot more productive, and that has helped us out so much in games.”

If all goes according to King’s plan, the Tigers will head to the NCAA tournament, an event that King is familiar with as both a player and coach. She is still looking for her first win at NCAAs, but the atmosphere and ambiance are things she hopes her current players will have the opportunity to experience.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

“It was my senior year, and for the first round we played Nebraska, the eventual NCAA Champions,” King said. “No Cinderella story, but it was an electric atmosphere, a sea of Husker fans in a sold out Coliseum.”

However, King knows the Tigers have a lot of work to do before thinking that far in advance. The immediate goal is an Ivy League title, which would be King’s sixth but the first for all of her current players, as the Tigers have not won the league since 2007.

“We will need to focus and for everyone to play well more consistently,” King said. “We have a lot of talent on the team, but I have yet to see us play as well as I know we can.”