Women's Volleyball: Rudnick leads Tigers into tie for league lead

The Yale women’s volleyball team would love to return to a single moment on Friday night. It was game three. Each team had won one game apiece. The score was 13-13, and Yale had just called a timeout. Neither team had led a set by more than four points throughout the entire match. It was anyone’s match for the taking.

The Tigers took it.

In front of a rowdy home crowd at Dillon Gymnasium, the Tigers defeated Yale 3-1 on Friday and swept Brown on Saturday to improve to 13-6 overall and 6-1 in the Ivy League, tied with the Bulldogs (12-5, 6-1) for first place heading into the second half of the conference season.

“That was a big signal that we sent to the league,” head coach Sabrina King ’01 said. “Yale is an awesome team. To take them down is just so gratifying.”

Coming into Friday night’s game, the Bulldogs had looked almost untouchable in the league. Four of their first five matches were 3-0 sweeps, landing them a solo spot at the top of the standings with a 5-0 league record.

The first game opened with a slew of Princeton kills, but spotty tip coverage by the Tigers allowed Yale to even out the score. Later in the set, however, the hosts regained an advantage because of sloppy play by the Bulldogs. Seven of Princeton’s last 14 points came off of Yale errors, both at the net and at the service line, allowing the Tigers to win 25-23.

Yale quickly countered in game two, winning by the same two-point margin that the Tigers had taken the first game, and took an early lead in the third game before Princeton won four straight points to even the score at 13-13.

From that crucial turning point, Princeton — led by a series of kills from its first-team All-Ivy duo, junior outside hitter Lydia Rudnick and senior middle Cathryn Quinn — won five of the next seven points and never let Yale win consecutive points, taking the game 25-20. The home team then dominated game four, leading by as many as eight points and winning by the same score.

“It meant so much for our team to beat Yale because, in order for us to still have a chance to win the Ivy League, we needed to beat them,” Rudnick said.

Rudnick, perhaps motivated by a dose of sisterly rivalry — her younger sister Maddie is a freshman libero for the Bulldogs — had a season-best performance of 25 kills and 14 digs. Quinn also added an impressive 21 kills, and senior libero Hillary Ford led the back line against an aggressive Bulldog offense with 21 digs. Yale outside hitter Allie Frappier posted 17 kills and 14 digs in the loss.

“It was really fun playing against my sister because it was the first time that has ever happened,” Rudnick said. “It definitely made the game a little more competitive because I didn’t want to lose to my little sister.”

With this momentum, Rudnick and the Tigers continued to dominate on Saturday against the Brown Bears (6-12, 2-5). Princeton won a quick three-game match by scores of 26-24, 25-23 and 25-19, its first sweep of the conference season. The match was characterized by streaky scoring by both teams, including a seven-point run by the Bears in game two to even the score at 20-20 before the Tigers pulled away.

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The Tigers closed the match strong — a departure from their first three league matches, which all went the maximum five sets — with sophomore outside hitter Chelsea Parker providing clutch serving. Parker ended the match with two consecutive aces.

Rudnick continued her weekend of excellence, posting a team-high 16 kills with a .353 hitting percentage. Quinn again posted a kill number in double digits with 13, and freshman setter Ginny Willis helped the pair with 34 assists.

Going into the second half of the season, the Tigers are enjoying the view from first place. However, the path ahead will be anything but easy. They are set to go on a five-game road trip, beginning on Friday night against archrival Penn, which won the league title last season but is just 2-5 in conference play this year.