Men's volleyball faces ups and downs in west coast trip

While Winter Storm Juno dumped feet upon feet of snow across the Northeast last week, the Princeton men’s volleyball team (2-4) travelled for the second time this month to sunny California to take on three strong opponents.

Sixth year head coach Sam Shweisky has challenged his squad from the get-go this season, with all six matches thus far taking place across the country against powerhouses from California, including five consecutive matches against top-15 nationally-ranked teams. On the first trip west on Jan. 9-10 at the 2015 UCSBAsics Invitational, the Tigers dropped matches to No. 12 California State University, Long Beach and No. 4 University of California, Santa Barbarabefore winning a tightly-contested match against No. 13 California State University, Northridge to cap off the weekend. The second cross-country journey proved similar to the first.

On Sunday, Jan. 25in Los Angeles, Calif., the Tigers fell in straight sets 25-18, 25-21, 25-21 to No. 9 University of California, Los Angeles (4-2). While Princeton could not push the Bruins to a fourth set, they did persevere in the third to knot up the score at 20 before UCLA broke away. For a team with plenty of talented upperclassmen, the performances of freshman Kendall Ratter, who registered 13 kills, and sophomore Chris Kennedy, who added 25 assists, were bright spotson Sundaynight.

The following night, the men from New Jersey faced perhaps their toughest opponent of the season, falling 25-14, 25-19, 25-22 to No. 3 University of California, Irvine (8-2). Again, the Tigers showed resolve after dropping a tough first set, improving in all three periods to give the top-five program a run for their money in the third. Leading the attack for the away side were senior Cody Kessel —an honorable mention All-American last season — who contributed 16 kills, and sophomore Junior Oboh, who hit .562 on the night.

After the run of five straight top-15 opponents had concluded, the Tigers ended their second trip through the Golden State with a resounding 25-18, 29-27, 25-14 victory over University of California, San Diego (1-8)on Wednesday. Once again, Kessel and Oboh led the attack, with the senior registering 15 kills to go with six blocks and four digs while the sophomore added 11 more kills on a .625 hitting performance. Kennedy again piled up the assists, with 34, to key a solid team victory in San Diego.

The Tigers open up their Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association schedule against the New Jersey Institute of Technology (4-2) in Newarkon Fridaynight at7 p.m.After squaring off against some of the nation’s fiercest competition, Princeton should be ready to compete.