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Women’s volleyball trounces Harvard in Homecoming game to complete season sweep

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Senior outside hitter Melina Mahood was key to the Tigers' success Friday.
Courtesy of @PrincetonWVB/Twitter.

On Friday, Oct. 28, women’s volleyball (17–3, 9–1 Ivy) completed the season sweep of Harvard (5–13, 4–6 Ivy) with a 3–1 win. With the return of senior outside hitter Elena Montgomery, the Tigers propelled themselves to Homecoming success.

Scoring five straight points to start the game, Princeton was in the driver's seat the entire time this set. Their lead never went below four after the score was 8–4. The final score of the set was 25–18 Princeton and ended on a service error by Harvard.

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Coming back from an injury, Montgomery entered the game for her first time this season and had an immediate impact. In just the second play after she came in, she had a kill. Unfortunately for Princeton, the momentum soon shifted in Harvard’s favor. After Harvard went up 4–3, they didn’t give up their lead the entire set. The set ended with a score of 25–10 in favor of Harvard.

The third set went much smoother for the Tigers. With a 5–0 lead to start, the Tigers picked themselves up after their loss in set two. Montgomery returned this set and had herself a day. In this set alone, she had seven kills and two blocks. The Tigers never dropped below eight after they took a 10–2 lead early.

When asked about her mentality coming into the game after an injury, Montgomery told The Daily Princetonian, “What has always gotten me through my injury is the support of my team. It was absolutely amazing getting to play, but it was even better coming off the court and getting hugged by my team.”

“When I went in I was incredibly nervous for a lot of reasons, but my goal was just to do my best and put in maximum effort every point,” she added. “As seniors we can only have a few games left of our volleyball careers, so we have to make the most of them and have fun!”

The fourth set played out in a similar fashion to the third set. Coming in hot, the Tigers set an early 10–4 lead. After that, the Crimson had no chance catching up. The game ended on a kill by junior outside hitter Maya Satchell.

Along with Montgomery, senior outside hitter Melina Mahood, senior right side hitter Avery Luoma, and first-year blocker Lucia Scalamandre also had strong showings. Mahood ended with a match-high 15 kills, Luoma and Scalamandre each had nine kills of their own. Scalamandre ended with a match-high seven blocks.

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Women’s volleyball also played Dartmouth (14–6, 6–4 Ivy) on Saturday, increasing their winning streak to four games with a 3–0 win. The Tigers will face Brown on Friday, Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. in Dillon Gym for a battle between the two Ivy League teams.

Allison Ha is a contributing writer for the Sports section at the ‘Prince.’ Please direct any corrections requests to corrections@dailyprincetonian.com.

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