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Mattaliano Makes History, Joins O'Connell, King As Top Ivy Honorees; Five Claim All-Ivy Selections
November 17, 2016 | Women's Volleyball
Senior outside hitter Cara Mattliano, who led Princeton to 20 victories in its last 21 Ivy League regular season matches, added another accomplishment to her already-golden resumé Wednesday. She became the first player in program history to win multiple Ivy League Player of the Year honors — and only the fourth in Ivy League history to be the unanimous selection — and she led a cast of five players from the 2016 Ivy League champion Tigers to earn All-Ivy League honors.
Mattaliano wasn't alone among the top individual honorees. Freshman teammate Maggie O'Connell, who led all Ivy freshman with four Rookie of the Week honorees, shared the 2016 Ivy League Rookie of the Year award, while Sabrina King '01 was the unanimous selection as the Ivy League Head Coach of the Year. This is King's second straight Ivy League Head Coach of the Year award; she also won after leading Princeton to an unprecedented 2015 title, when the Tigers rallied from an 0-3 start to a 15th Ivy League title.
There would be no such rally this season. Led by co-captains Mattaliano and Brittany Ptak — who joined both individual winners on the All-Ivy League First Team — Princeton was the wire-to-wire frontrunner in the Ivy this season. While the senior leadership played a key role, the performance of freshman trio O'Connell, Jessie Harris and Devon Peterkin can't be understated. While O'Connell was a first-team All-Ivy League honoree, both Harris and Peterkin were named to the second team.
To put that in context, only six freshmen earned any type of All-Ivy League recognition. Princeton, which won 41 of 50 sets in Ivy play this season, had half of them.
Mattaliano, who became the 13th player in Princeton history to surpass the 1,000-kill mark for her career, ended the season ranked first in the Ivy League in kills (3.76); the margin between her and second-ranked Brittani Steinberg of Yale (3.17) was greater than the margin between Steinberg and the Ivy's 10th-ranked player in kills. She also ranked seventh in the Ivy League in digs (3.48), and was one of only two players to rank in the Top 10 in both categories. She had double-digit kills in 15 of her final 16 matches, including a 21-kill effort in Princeton's Ivy-clinching 3-2 comeback win over Cornell.
Mattaliano joined Kristi Hakman (1990), Kristin Spataro (1995), Sabrina King (1999), and Parker Henritze (2007) as Princeton players to take this top honor, but she now stands alone after winning it twice. She is only the sixth player in league history to win the honor in back-to-back seasons.
O'Connell was the only player in the Ivy League to rank in the Top 5 in both kills (fourth, 3.08) and hitting percentage (second, .396). She showed poise beyond her years in three of Princeton's biggest wins of the season, 3-2 victories over Penn, Harvard, and Cornell. In those three matches, O'Connell averaged 18.3 kills while hitting .479 over the tense 15 sets. She posted a career-best 24 kills in the 3-2 win at Harvard in a showdown of the 2015 Ivy co-champions.
O'Connell joins Melanie Hunter (1991), Ayesha Attoh (1994), Michelle Buffum (1999), Kellie Cramm (2000), and Parker Henritze (2005) as Princeton recipients of this honor.
Ptak completed her ascendance through the All-Ivy teams — honorable mention in 2014, second team in 2015 — by completing her most efficient offensive season from the middle position. She ranked fourth in the Ivy League in hitting percentage (.339) and eighth in kills (2.74), and she earned Ivy League Player of the Week honors following a 21-kill performance in the Ivy-opening 3-2 win at Penn.
Both Harris and Peterkin may have been unknowns when Ivy League play began, but that changed quickly. Peterkin averaged 2.68 kills per match and had double-digit kills in eight Ivy matches, including 14 apiece in the 3-2 road wins at Penn and Harvard; she ranked seventh in conference play in kills (2.88). Harris ranked second in the Ivy League in assists (10.52), and she paced the Ivy League's most efficient offense, which hit .267 for the year, and .281 in conference play.
Princeton will now wait until Sunday, Nov. 27, to learn their destination in the NCAA tournament; ESPNU will host the selection show at 9 pm that night. The Tigers, who are winless in NCAA postseason play, have been to the tournament five times, with their most recent trip coming in 2007.
Until then, we leave you with this:
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
*Cara Mattaliano, Princeton (Sr., OH - Glen Ellyn, Ill.)
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
*Cassie Wes, Columbia (Sr., L – Atherton, Calif.)
CO-ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Maggie O'Connell, Princeton (Fr., RS – Katy, Texas)
CO-ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Chichi Ikwuazom, Columbia (Fr., MB - New York, N.Y.)
COACH OF THE YEAR
*Sabrina King, Princeton
FIRST TEAM ALL-IVY
*Cara Mattaliano, Princeton (Sr., OH – Glen Ellyn, Ill.)
Maggie O'Connell, Princeton (Fr., RS – Katy, Texas)
*Brittani Steinberg, Yale (Sr., OH – Glenview, Ill.)
Chichi Ikwuazom, Columbia (Fr., MB – New York, N.Y.)
Brittany Ptak, Princeton (Sr., MB – Coto de Caza, Calif.)
Corinne Bain, Harvard (Sr., S/OH – Manhattan Beach, Calif.)
Cassie Wes, Columbia (Sr., L – Atherton, Calif.)
SECOND TEAM ALL-IVY^
Anja Malesevic, Columbia (Jr., RS – Belgrade, Serbia)
Grace Roberts Burbank, Harvard (Fr., OH – San Francisco, Calif.)
Devon Peterkin, Princeton (Fr., OH – San Diego, Calif.)
Tristin Kott, Yale (Fr., OH – Winter Park, Fla.)
Payton Smith, Brown (Sr., MB – Atherton, Calif.)
Christina Cornelius, Harvard (So., MB – Los Angeles, Calif.)
Alyssa Phelps, Cornell (Sr., S – Bucyrus, Kan.)
Jessie Harris, Princeton (Fr., S – Newport Beach, Calif.)
Kate Swanson, Yale (So., L – Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.)
HONORABLE MENTION ALL-IVY
Carla Sganderlla, Cornell (So., OH – Houston, Texas)
Kit McCarty, Cornell (Jr., RS – Hudson Ohio)
Emily Astarita, Dartmouth (Sr., OH/RS – Setauket, N.Y.)
Courtney Quinn, Penn (So., OH – The Woodlands, Texas)
Kelley Wirth, Yale (So., OH – Moraga, Calif.)
Macey Wilson, Cornell (Sr., MB – Round Rock, Texas)
Sydney Morton, Penn (Jr., S – Atlanta, Ga.)
Melissa Cairo, Brown (Jr., L – Hillsborough, Calif.)
*Unanimous Selection
^Second Team Expanded Due To Tie In Voting
Mattaliano wasn't alone among the top individual honorees. Freshman teammate Maggie O'Connell, who led all Ivy freshman with four Rookie of the Week honorees, shared the 2016 Ivy League Rookie of the Year award, while Sabrina King '01 was the unanimous selection as the Ivy League Head Coach of the Year. This is King's second straight Ivy League Head Coach of the Year award; she also won after leading Princeton to an unprecedented 2015 title, when the Tigers rallied from an 0-3 start to a 15th Ivy League title.
There would be no such rally this season. Led by co-captains Mattaliano and Brittany Ptak — who joined both individual winners on the All-Ivy League First Team — Princeton was the wire-to-wire frontrunner in the Ivy this season. While the senior leadership played a key role, the performance of freshman trio O'Connell, Jessie Harris and Devon Peterkin can't be understated. While O'Connell was a first-team All-Ivy League honoree, both Harris and Peterkin were named to the second team.
To put that in context, only six freshmen earned any type of All-Ivy League recognition. Princeton, which won 41 of 50 sets in Ivy play this season, had half of them.
Mattaliano, who became the 13th player in Princeton history to surpass the 1,000-kill mark for her career, ended the season ranked first in the Ivy League in kills (3.76); the margin between her and second-ranked Brittani Steinberg of Yale (3.17) was greater than the margin between Steinberg and the Ivy's 10th-ranked player in kills. She also ranked seventh in the Ivy League in digs (3.48), and was one of only two players to rank in the Top 10 in both categories. She had double-digit kills in 15 of her final 16 matches, including a 21-kill effort in Princeton's Ivy-clinching 3-2 comeback win over Cornell.
Mattaliano joined Kristi Hakman (1990), Kristin Spataro (1995), Sabrina King (1999), and Parker Henritze (2007) as Princeton players to take this top honor, but she now stands alone after winning it twice. She is only the sixth player in league history to win the honor in back-to-back seasons.
O'Connell was the only player in the Ivy League to rank in the Top 5 in both kills (fourth, 3.08) and hitting percentage (second, .396). She showed poise beyond her years in three of Princeton's biggest wins of the season, 3-2 victories over Penn, Harvard, and Cornell. In those three matches, O'Connell averaged 18.3 kills while hitting .479 over the tense 15 sets. She posted a career-best 24 kills in the 3-2 win at Harvard in a showdown of the 2015 Ivy co-champions.
O'Connell joins Melanie Hunter (1991), Ayesha Attoh (1994), Michelle Buffum (1999), Kellie Cramm (2000), and Parker Henritze (2005) as Princeton recipients of this honor.
Ptak completed her ascendance through the All-Ivy teams — honorable mention in 2014, second team in 2015 — by completing her most efficient offensive season from the middle position. She ranked fourth in the Ivy League in hitting percentage (.339) and eighth in kills (2.74), and she earned Ivy League Player of the Week honors following a 21-kill performance in the Ivy-opening 3-2 win at Penn.
Both Harris and Peterkin may have been unknowns when Ivy League play began, but that changed quickly. Peterkin averaged 2.68 kills per match and had double-digit kills in eight Ivy matches, including 14 apiece in the 3-2 road wins at Penn and Harvard; she ranked seventh in conference play in kills (2.88). Harris ranked second in the Ivy League in assists (10.52), and she paced the Ivy League's most efficient offense, which hit .267 for the year, and .281 in conference play.
Princeton will now wait until Sunday, Nov. 27, to learn their destination in the NCAA tournament; ESPNU will host the selection show at 9 pm that night. The Tigers, who are winless in NCAA postseason play, have been to the tournament five times, with their most recent trip coming in 2007.
Until then, we leave you with this:
That moment when live stats tells @PrincetonVolley that they are the OUTRIGHT @IvyLeague champion and NCAA-bound! pic.twitter.com/ntnXtMiLc2
— Princeton Tigers (@PUTIGERS) November 12, 2016
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
*Cara Mattaliano, Princeton (Sr., OH - Glen Ellyn, Ill.)
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
*Cassie Wes, Columbia (Sr., L – Atherton, Calif.)
CO-ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Maggie O'Connell, Princeton (Fr., RS – Katy, Texas)
CO-ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Chichi Ikwuazom, Columbia (Fr., MB - New York, N.Y.)
COACH OF THE YEAR
*Sabrina King, Princeton
FIRST TEAM ALL-IVY
*Cara Mattaliano, Princeton (Sr., OH – Glen Ellyn, Ill.)
Maggie O'Connell, Princeton (Fr., RS – Katy, Texas)
*Brittani Steinberg, Yale (Sr., OH – Glenview, Ill.)
Chichi Ikwuazom, Columbia (Fr., MB – New York, N.Y.)
Brittany Ptak, Princeton (Sr., MB – Coto de Caza, Calif.)
Corinne Bain, Harvard (Sr., S/OH – Manhattan Beach, Calif.)
Cassie Wes, Columbia (Sr., L – Atherton, Calif.)
SECOND TEAM ALL-IVY^
Anja Malesevic, Columbia (Jr., RS – Belgrade, Serbia)
Grace Roberts Burbank, Harvard (Fr., OH – San Francisco, Calif.)
Devon Peterkin, Princeton (Fr., OH – San Diego, Calif.)
Tristin Kott, Yale (Fr., OH – Winter Park, Fla.)
Payton Smith, Brown (Sr., MB – Atherton, Calif.)
Christina Cornelius, Harvard (So., MB – Los Angeles, Calif.)
Alyssa Phelps, Cornell (Sr., S – Bucyrus, Kan.)
Jessie Harris, Princeton (Fr., S – Newport Beach, Calif.)
Kate Swanson, Yale (So., L – Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.)
HONORABLE MENTION ALL-IVY
Carla Sganderlla, Cornell (So., OH – Houston, Texas)
Kit McCarty, Cornell (Jr., RS – Hudson Ohio)
Emily Astarita, Dartmouth (Sr., OH/RS – Setauket, N.Y.)
Courtney Quinn, Penn (So., OH – The Woodlands, Texas)
Kelley Wirth, Yale (So., OH – Moraga, Calif.)
Macey Wilson, Cornell (Sr., MB – Round Rock, Texas)
Sydney Morton, Penn (Jr., S – Atlanta, Ga.)
Melissa Cairo, Brown (Jr., L – Hillsborough, Calif.)
*Unanimous Selection
^Second Team Expanded Due To Tie In Voting
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