Following consecutive losses, Tigers look to rebound against Quakers

Princeton, N.J. is far from Dillon, Texas, and tigers are not quite panthers, but Princeton women’s volleyball (9-8, 4-3 Ivy) will nonetheless host Ivy League rival Penn (6-12, 3-4) under the Friday night Dillon lights on Oct. 24. The lady Quakers do not particularly intimidate their nearby rivals, as the lady Tigers travelled Philadelphia earlier this season to won in straight sets. Princeton will nonetheless have to bring its A-game in an Ivy League season that has thus far been full of parity. In fact, five of the eight teams, two of which are Princeton and Penn, sit at either 4-3 or 3-4 in league play.

The Tigers look to rebound from a disappointing weekend in which they went 0-2 against Harvard (12-4, 5-2 Ivy) and Dartmouth (13-5, 4-3 Ivy). These two losses contribute to a .500 record over their last 10 games. The Dartmouth loss stung in particular, as the Tigers had a late rally after going down two games to nil. They stormed back to win the next two games with a career-high 28 kills from the four-time Ivy League Player of the Week, junior Kendall Peterkin, and tied up the final game at 19-19. However, Dartmouth then went on to score six unanswered points for the match, much to the disappointment of the Tigers.

The Harvard game, on the other hand, was a 3-0 blowout in which Princeton’s starters were visibly fatigued as a result of the previous night’s affair against the Big Green. The lone bright spot for the Tigers was a stellar defensive performance from junior libero Sarah Daschbach, who registered 20 digs and currently sits at third in the Ivy League in digs per set at 4.52. However, the offense never really got going, as even Peterkin had a relatively quiet game with just 11 kills. She made up for it defensively, though, with an additional seven digs.

Daschbach cites greater volume on the court as a key factor in her improvement this season: “I think the biggest factor for me that has changed is just been being loud. I came in as a freshman pretty timid—and very soon I realized that in order to succeed on our team and in the position of libero, you have to be really assertive ... It makes it a lot more comfortable so that we can move more seamlessly, not run into each other and better predict where [the ball] is going to be.”

On the whole, Princeton’s individual statistical leaders compare quite favorably to those around the Ivies. Apart from the aforementioned Daschbach, Peterkin continues to lead the league in kills per set with 4.46, in addition to 0.34 service aces per set—good for fourth in the league. Furthermore, sophomore Lauren Miller has had a quietly impressive year at the setter position as she leads the league with 10.62 assists per set.

Princeton seems like the favorite on paper, having already blown out Penn this season, but should keep in mind that this team is coming off of a comfortable 3-1 win against the same Dartmouth team that took Princeton to five games and beat them. Having said that, the same Penn team lost in straight sets to both Princeton and a seemingly weak Columbia team that Princeton had earlier beaten 3-1 at home. This has been and will continue to be an Ivy League volleyball season full of parity —as we’ve seen before, anything can happen under the friday night Dillon lights.