Results were mixed for women’s volleyball this past weekend. In their final set of games before the opening of Ivy League play, the Tigers (5-6 overall) went 1-3 during the course of the nearby Rutgers Invitational.
Friday’s 9:30 a.m. matchup pitted Princeton against American University (8-4). The Eagles came away with the win by a 3-1 margin with set scores of 20-25, 25-20, 25-19 and 25-15.
A strong comeback allowed Princeton to take the first set after being behind by as many as five points. American’s largest lead of the first frame was 12-7, but the Tigers fought back until they had reversed that advantage and taken a 20-15 lead.
After closing out the first set, the Tigers failed to sustain much of an attack for the remaining three frames. American’s setter Monika Smidova, who was eventually selected as MVP of the Invitational, picked up a game-high 49 assists. Once again, junior hitter Kendall Peterkin led the Tiger offense with a team-high 17 kills.
James Madison University (8-5) provided the next challenge for head coach Sabrina King’s side. The Dukes picked up their first win of the weekend by a match score of 3-2 and set scores of 23-25, 52-15, 25-22, 27-29 and 15-13. This closely contested bout resulted in the most points the Tigers would play all weekend as well as the most lead changes.
For the second straight contest, Princeton took the first set, starting out strong and amassing a game-high 11-5 lead. In response, the Dukes picked up five straight points, but their comeback fell short of earning them the frame.
The Dukes picked up the second set by a comfortable margin of 25-15. A 7-0 James Madison run in the third set put the Tigers at a steep disadvantage, although their own 7-1 run brought the score to a tie at 18. Set number four pushed the limits for both teams, as it took 56 total points for James Madison to earn the final 29-27 advantage. During the back-and-forth affair, the score was tied a remarkable 14 times with nine lead changes.
Save for the first two points, the Eagles had the advantage throughout the final set as they closed the match out with a 15-13 fourth frame win.
Princeton’s finest effort of the weekend came against Akron (6-9). After a pair of frustrating losses, the Tigers finally came away with a victory by a final margin of 3-2 with set scores of 20-25, 17-25, 25-20, 25-21 and 15-9.
Two sets of play had Peterkin and the Tigers on the brink of defeat as the Zips had taken a commanding 2-0 lead. The score was tied at seven different points in the third frame, but a 7-0 Princeton run gave the Tigers a 19-13 advantage, which they managed to ride out to a final score of 25-20.
In the fourth set, two separate 5-0 runs helped the Tigers establish their distance en route to winning the penultimate frame. With nothing separating the two sides, the tiebreaking fifth set saw the Tigers jump out to an 8-2 lead, which Akron could not surmount.
During the comeback win, Peterkin managed an impressive stat line of 19 kills and 21 digs. Junior libero Sarah Daschbach picked up 19 digs of her own.
Rutgers (7-6) managed to blank their visitors from down Route 1 in a 3-0 home victory. A tightly contested first set saw a 5-0 Princeton rally tie the score at 24-24. The Scarlett Knights were able to sneak by with a 27-25 set win.
The second frame was more or less all Scarlett, as a number of strong runs by the home team established a distance too big for the visiting Tigers to close.
After the 25-19 second set win, Rutgers was able to close out the match after first jumping out to an imposing 16-6 lead. Their 25-22 set win wrapped up the weekend's action.
Senior blocker Nicole Kincade led her side in kills with 12 during the final contest.
Despite Princeton’s sub .500 start to the season, the Ivy League is still wide open with all teams sitting at 0-0. Conference play will begin this upcoming Friday for the Tigers, who travel to Penn for game one of what might be called the regular season. Princeton topped the Quakers at home with a 3-2 victory before falling on the road in a lackluster 0-3 loss to Penn.
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