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Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Volleyball Looks To Maintain First Place During New York Trip
October 22, 2010 | Women's Volleyball
The Princeton women's volleyball team hasn't played two straight road matches since the middle of September, but the Tigers will return to the road this weekend to take on Columbia and Cornell to complete the first half of their Ivy League schedule.
Princeton comes into the weekend with a 10-6 overall record and a 5-0 mark in the Ivy League. The Tigers lead travel partner Penn (4-1) by one match and Yale (4-2) by 1.5 matches. The remainder of the league has either a .500 record or below, although the majority of the match scores throughout the Ivy season have been close.
Princeton is no stranger to close matches, especially during its Ivy season. The Tigers have seen three of their five matches go the distance and have had to rally from at least a 1-0 deficit in four matches. Starting with an 0-2 comeback in the opener at Penn, Princeton has shown impressive resilience in the start of Ivy play.
Leading the way for Princeton has been sophomore Lydia Rudnick, who has either won or shared Ivy League Player of the Week honors in each of the three weeks of the Ivy season so far. In a 3-2 comeback win over Harvard last weekend, Rudnick recorded a career-high 32 kills and added 16 digs. Both sophomore Jennifer Palmquist and junior Cathryn Quinn are averaging between 2.3 and 2.5 kills per set, while junior setter Michaela Venuti is averaging 8.3 assists per set and 11 assists per set in Ivy League matches. Senior setter Liz McStravick is averaging just below one kill and .8 blocks per set and has shown great improvement during her final season as a Princeton middle.
Princeton will open its weekend Friday at 4 p.m. against Columbia (11-5, 3-3). The Lions have played five of their six Ivy matches on the road and came up with impressive victories at both Dartmouth and Yale over the last two weeks. Princeton will head to Ithaca Saturday to take on Cornell at 5; the Big Red is 2-4 in Ivy play, with wins over both Columbia and Brown.