Princeton University Athletics
Men's Volleyball Rallies From 0-2 Down For Critical, Thrilling Win
February 27, 2004 | Men's Volleyball
Feb. 27, 2004
In a match it needed to win, against an opponent it could have to defeat en route to an EIVA championship match, the Princeton men's volleyball team dug a hole that looked too deep to get out of.
But looks can be deceiving. Just ask Rutgers-Newark.
Junior Blake Robinson had 22 kills, while senior setter Jason Liljestrom had 54 assists, as Princeton rallied from an 0-2 deficit to defeat the Scarlet Raiders 3-2 (26-30, 24-30, 30-27, 30-23, 18-16).
"This was by far the biggest match of the year," Liljestrom said. "I haven't felt we had played up to our potential this season. Our league wins this year came against teams we were supposed to beat, but we're about even with this team."
It didn't look that way at the start, as Rutgers raced out to a 2-0 lead. The Scarlet-Raiders, who swept Princeton 3-0 at home in the Tigers' EIVA opener, looked ready for another sweep after hitting better than .400 in the opening two games. Andrew Pink, who had a match-best 25 kills, was hitting at will, and the Rutgers defense was making every point difficult for the Tigers. "We came out in that third game playing with nothing to lose," Liljestrom said. "When you're down 0-2, usually you aren't going to pull it out. We didn't worry about mistakes, which we did in the first two games, and we just played hard."
The middle hitting opened up in the first game. After Sean Vitousek and Brian Hamming combined for only three kills in the first two games combined, they killed 19 balls together in the final three games to open up the attack. Both hit over .600 for the match, with Vitousek hitting a season-best .692 with 10 kills and only one error in 13 attempts.
After pulling out a 30-27 win in the third game, Princeton hit .588 and used a late run to pull away from Rutgers and set up the decisive fifth game. Princeton received first and led most of the way, but a kill and a block gave Rutgers a one-point lead at 13-12. The Tigers took the next two points to earn the first of four match points. While Rutgers would win the first three, Princeton always followed with a sideout, including two kills by Robinson, and never gave up the lead. Byron Goff, one of three Rutgers platers with five service errors in the match, hit wide on the final match point to give Princeton the 18-16 win.
Princeton is now 8-4 overall, 3-2 in the EIVA Tait, while Rutgers is 9-5, 6-2 in the Tait. Princeton will play at Southampton Sunday.