.png&width=24&type=webp)
Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Pennsylvania
Women's Volleyball Rally Falls Short At Penn
November 19, 2003 | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 19, 2003
Box Score
PHILADELPHIA - The Princeton women's volleyball team took the hard road to Wednesday night's Ivy League championship match at Penn, and it took the hard road in the match. Although it relied on resiliency throughout a wild ride to the final night of the league race, there wasn't enough in the tank to overcome the Quakers. The Tigers fell 3-1 to the three-time champion Penn Quakers, which will represent the Ivy League in the NCAA Tournament next month.
Princeton fell into a deep hole early in game one, as defending Ivy League Player of the Year Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan served six straight points to give the Quakers an early 7-2 lead. The teams played the next 20 points evenly, but an ace by Alex Brown and a solo block by Brittany Wood cut the deficit to 17-14 and gave Princeton some momentum back. A Penn hitting error and another kill by Brown got Princeton to within one point for the first time since it was 3-2, and forced Quaker coach Kerry Major-Carr to take a timeout. An error by Michelle Kauffman got Princeton even, and the two teams started playing sideout volleyball. Priceton finally got a lead when Penn couldn't successfully pass off a serve by Cramm. The ball went over the net and was killed by Brown, giving Princeton the advantage. An ace by Lauren Carter and an error by Lauren Grumet put Penn back in the driver's seat, but Wood ended a close point with a kill to stop the momentum.
It wouldn't be enough, though. Penn would lead 29-27, and after a Weber kill, a service error by Wood gave Penn a 30-28 victory in game one.
Game two started ominously for Penn, as a caravan of Princeton fans, clad in orange and black, started filling the Palestra stands. The Tigers also made sure they didn't fall into an early holes, playing sideout volleyball until a kill by Cramm gave Princeton a 6-4 lead. Penn would battle back to take a 17-13 advantage, and timely hitting by the Quakers helped the lead grow to 25-19. Princeton would get no closer, losing the second game 30-20.
Princeton had faced a similar situation in its home match against Penn, falling behind 2-0 in games. That night, Princeton rallied to take the third game. For a while, it appeared that wouldn't hold true, as Penn built a five-point lead midway through the third game and seemed only minutes away from clinching the league title. However, a team that got to the championship game the hard way had yet one more resilient run in them and battled back to even the score at 25-25. By that point, the Palestra had turned into a home arena for the Tigers, as the chants of "Let's Go Tigers!" rang loudly thoughout the building. A hitting error by Penn and a block by Grumet and Senske gave Princeton an amazing 27-25 lead. Following a trio of sideouts, Brown killed a set for a 29-27 lead, and, to the delight of the crowd, Wood killed a missed pass to end the game at 30-27.
Princeton learned in the fourth game that it could not continue to fall behind and come out ahead. Despite an early 3-1, Princeton found itself down 19-9 and simply couldn't find a way to kill enough balls to pull off another rally. A service ace by Heather Janssen gave Penn the 30-20 win in the final game.
Cramm led Princeton with 18 kills, while Grumet had 14. Freshman libero Jenny McReynolds had 27 digs, while Senske had 51 assists. Janssen had 18 kills for Penn with only four errors, while Cara Thomason had a match-high 30 digs. Princeton hit .107 in the match, and Penn had a 115-102 advantage in digs.
Princeton ends its season with a 17-6 record, including an 11-3 mark in the Ivy League. It will return five starters from this year's team, as well as McReynolds, who led the Ivy League in digs this season.