Junior Parker Henritze recorded a match-high 17 kills and senior Jenny McReynolds recorded 17 digs to keep the Princeton women's volleyball team as the lone unbeaten in the Ivy League. The Tigers ran their win streak to 13 matches and improved to 14-3, 6-0 in Ivy play, with a 31-29, 30-25, 30-28 win over a game Harvard Crimson squad. The win, combined with a Dartmouth loss, puts Princeton up two matches on Penn, Dartmouth and Yale in the Ivy League standings.
Princeton, which had played its first five Ivy League matches at home, used the same winning formula on the road that worked so well in Dillon Gym. The combination of Henritze, Sheena Donohue and Lindsey Ensign recorded 42 of Princeton's 53 kills. Junior setter Bailey Robinson recorded a double-double with 43 assists and 12 digs, while Ensign recorded team highs in blocks (eight) and attack percentage (.409).
The home team got an early surge in the opening game and built a 12-7 lead off a kill by Alissa Flesher. Princeton got itself back into the match with a 5-0 run that came mostly on the strong service of Parker Henritze, one of the Ivy League leaders in aces. After trailing 14-10, she led the Tigers to a 15-14 lead, their first since an early 2-1 advantage. Both teams would trade the lead for the remainder of the game, but it was the Crimson that would get the first game ball.
A service error by Katherine Kocurek evened the score at 29-29, and McReynolds made sure the Crimson would not get another serve. Her two strong serves led to a pair of swings from rightside player Kelli Grobe, and the junior from Kane'ohe, Hawaii, put both away for a 31-29 win.
The second game was fairly even until McReynolds went back to the service line. Down 12-10 at the time, the former CVU.com Libero of the Year served five straight Princeton points, including one on an ace. That built a 15-12 lead, and later kills from Donohue and Ensign built the lead to four points (20-16). A gritty Crimson squad, inspired by a loud section of student supporters, eventually evened the score at 24-24, but a kill by Henritze ignited a 3-0 Princeton run. The Tigers would hold on for a 30-25 win in the game.
Princeton jumped out to an early 5-1 lead in the third game, but Harvard clawed its way back into the match and even grabbed a 14-13 lead. Once again, Princeton went on a run to build the lead back; this time, a pair of Donohue kills on Robinson's serve helped Princeton to a 19-16 lead. Harvard would get to within one point at 27-26, but Donohue's 14th kill of the night gave Princeton a two-point lead. At 29-28, Grobe put the match away with her seventh kill.
It was a good road win for Princeton, which lost crucial early road matches early last season.
“That was in the back of our mind,” Ensign said, “but we want to start a new trend of being good on the road. Their fans were solid today, and we were probably a little uncomfortable at the start being away from Dillon, but we were able to get over that.”
Princeton will now head to Dartmouth for a 4 p.m. showdown with the Big Green Saturday. Dartmouth, which earned a home win over Princeton last season, had opened its Ivy season with five straight victories before losing consecutive matches to Cornell and Penn. The Quakers defeated the Big Green 3-1 Friday night in Hanover.
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