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Harvard Rallies For 3-2 Comeback Win Over Tiger Men's Volleyball
April 02, 2011 | Men's Volleyball
One year ago, Princeton had a season's worth of heartstopping five-set matches, and it seemed to come out ahead in every big opportunity. This season, Princeton has had only two, and both ended as disappointing losses to Ivy rival Harvard.
Earlier this season, the Tigers rallied from a 2-0 hole, but Harvard held on at home and came back in the fifth for a victory. On Saturday, in Princeton's last match before a three-match road trip, the Crimson was the team to rally from the 2-0 deficit and used a brilliant service game in the fifth to take out the Tigers 19-25, 22-25, 25-22, 25-21, 15-6.
Princeton led 21-17 in the third set and seemed in full control of the match, but Harvard scored eight of the final nine points to stun both the Tigers and the home crowd and force a fourth set. The fourth was close throughout, but Harvard again used a late run to turn a 20-20 tie into a 25-21 win.
Despite going into an early 2-1 hole, Harvard dominated the fifth. Harvard ran off an 11-1 run to build a 13-2 lead and used a Nick Madden kill to finish the match.
Princeton got a match-high 21 kills from senior Vincent Tuminelli, while freshman Jeff Stapleton added 14 kills, seven digs and two aces. Sophomore Michael Dye also had double-digit kills (12), and added three blocks. Senior middle Keenan McCarthy had one of his most effective matches of the season, recording seven kills on only 10 swings (.700 attack percentage) and added four blocks, four digs and three service aces. Fellow middle Brad Howard added four blocks, while freshman libero Davis Waddell led the Tigers with nine digs.
Junior Scott Liljestrom paced the offense with a match-high 52 assists and added four digs and a trio of blocks.
Princeton will face one of its most challenging road trips in years next weekend; the Tigers will head to Columbus, Ohio, to take on the fourth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes (Friday at 7, Saturday at 2).