Women's Volleyball: Tigers try to stay undefeated in N.Y.

The women’s volleyball team heads to New York this weekend to continue Ivy League play against Columbia and Cornell. The Tigers (10-5 overall, 3-0 Ivy League) remain undefeated in league play after a pair of dramatic five-game victories last weekend at Dillon Gymnasium against Harvard and Dartmouth. Thus far, each of Princeton’s three league wins has gone the maximum distance.

“I think our major obstacle in every game is becoming too complacent,” freshman setter Ginny Willis said. “We get a big lead and then relax, knowing we have that fifth game to win it all. The problem is that anything can happen in the fifth game. We need to finish our games quickly with intensity, showing the other teams in the league that we plan to win it all.”

Senior middle blocker and captain Cathryn Quinn had a more positive take. “I think playing at home with our great crowd has given us an advantage,” she said. “We are able to stay loose and confident in the fifth sets, which allows us to pull through.”

The Lions (8-5, 2-1) started league play with away wins over Cornell (3-11, 0-3) and Brown before losing to Yale, dropping the deciding fifth game 15-11. Columbia will host the Tigers on Friday evening for its first home league match. The Lions are led by outside hitter Megan Gaughn, who was one of only two unanimous selections for first team All-Ivy in 2010, along with Princeton junior outside hitter Lydia Rudnick. Gaughn has continued to lead Columbia this season with 3.40 kills and 3.86 points per game, placing her fourth in the league for both categories. Middle blocker Monique Roberts averages 1.03 blocks per game and is third in the league with a .348 hitting percentage. Columbia and Princeton are first and second in the Ivy League in blocks per game with 2.55 and 2.28, respectively.

The Big Red has started winless in three league matches, with two of the losses coming in five games. They play defending co-champion Penn on Friday before hosting the Tigers on Saturday afternoon. Middle blocker Alice Cope leads the league with 1.19 blocks per game, setter Jordan Reeder ranks seventh with 6.84 assists per game, libero Risa Ka’awa is eighth with 4.20 digs per game and setter Kelly Reinke is coming off of a career-high 26 assists and seven digs versus Brown.

“I think we, hopefully, have learned to not take anything for granted,” Willis said. “The other teams in the league are going to fight to beat us. We are undefeated, so we have a target on our back, and we need to make sure we take care of business.”

In the deciding game against Dartmouth last weekend, the Tigers broke a 5-5 tie with three straight kills by Quinn, who finished with five kills in the game and 22 in the match. The senior ranks in the league’s top four in five major categories: hitting percentage, kills, blocks, points and service aces.

“We have to focus on our side of the net, passing well in order to run our effective and fast offense,” Quinn said. “We also need to play with a sense of urgency pretending that every game is the Ivy League championship. We need to minimize the runs of points that we allow the other team to get so that we don’t have to play from behind trying to close a gap.”

Willis continues to pace the Tiger offense. She had 107 assists in two matches over the weekend and currently ranks third in the league with 9.56 per game. Freshman middle blocker Nicole Kincade hit .414 for the Dartmouth match, recording 14 kills and a team-high seven blocks. Senior libero Hilary Ford leads the team’s improved defense, averaging 5.32 digs per game, good for second in the Ivy League.

“If we play as well as I know we can, we will come out of the weekend 5-0, no doubt about it,” Willis said.