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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Penn
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Players Mentioned
Peterkin, Mattaliano Provide 1-2 Punch In Crucial Volleyball Win At Penn
October 25, 2015 | Women's Volleyball
BOX SCORE
The Princeton women's volleyball team couldn't have asked for a better weekend, and it punctuated it in style Saturday night with a dominating performance at the Palestra. A 3-1 victory over the Quakers, along with other league results, has put the Tigers right back in the race with three weekends remaining.
All-Ivy senior Kendall Peterkin recorded the 14th 20+ kill match of her career and combined with junior Cara Mattaliano to post 39 kills — the exact same total as the full Penn team in a 25-21, 22-25, 25-11, 25-14 victory in Philadelphia.
Peterkin posted 22 kills, 10 digs, four blocks and hit .354, while Mattaliano added 17 kills and 15 digs, to move the Tigers back to the .500 mark in the Ivy League (4-4). Junior Brittany Ptak added eight kills and hit .444, while freshman Claire Nussbaum posted a 48-assist, 21-dig effort in the win.
Nussbaum and senior libero Sarah Daschbach led a defensive charge that simply kept the Quakers from generating any consistent offense in the final two sets. Daschbach recorded a match-best 25 digs in the victory; as a team, Princeton had 26 more digs than Penn.
The win adds more suspense to the wildest Ivy League race in more than a decade. Wins by Harvard (over Dartmouth) and Brown (over Yale) leaves Princeton two matches out of first place with six to go. Harvard and Dartmouth are currently tied in first with matching 6-2 Ivy marks, and both teams will be visiting Dillon Gym next weekend.
Besides pacing the offense with her setting, Nussbaum served Princeton during the turning point of the match. The Quakers rallied late in the second set to even the match and trailed 12-9 in the third when Nussbaum took the serve.
She served again. And again. And a bunch of agains after that. Nussbaum carried the Tigers to a 12-0 run, 11 of which came on her serve, and the Tigers cruised from there to the victory.