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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Cornell
First Place! Volleyball Wins 9th Of 10, Ties Harvard With 3-0 Cornell Win
November 14, 2015 | Women's Volleyball
The story hasn't been completed, but this plot twist is a remarkable once. The Princeton volleyball team, once last in the Ivy League standings with an 0-3 mark, moved into a three-way tie for first place in the league on the second-to-last night in the regular season.
Princeton defeated Cornell 25-17, 25-15, 25-14 for its sixth straight win, as well as its ninth in 10 matches, to move to 14-8 overall, 9-4 in the Ivy League. That win, combined with a 3-1 Harvard loss at Yale, as well as a 3-2 Dartmouth win at Brown, leaves Princeton, Harvard and Dartmouth each with matching 9-4 Ivy League records with one match to go.
Thus, the three teams, each of whom play road matches Saturday at 5 pm, each have a chance to clinch at least a share of the Ivy League title in the regular season finale. Harvard will play at Brown, which went five sets with Dartmouth before losing. Dartmouth will play five-time Ivy League champion Yale, which could make it a remarkable four-team title share with a win and losses by both Harvard and Princeton.
As for the Tigers, they will conclude their regular season at Columbia, which lost Friday 3-0 to Penn. Despite that loss, Columbia is one of two teams in the Ivy League with a home win over both Harvard and Yale this season (Princeton is the other), so the Tigers know they will have their hands full Saturday night.
The Tigers earned this opportunity with a dominant performance Friday night at Cornell. Both Kendall Peterkin and Cara Mattaliano entered the night with the exact same number of kills in Ivy League play, and they will leave the night the same way. Both had 12, while Mattaliano had 14 digs for her 12th double-double of the season.
Princeton also got terrific play from its middles. Junior Brittany Ptak had 10 kills without a single error (.476), while freshman Nnenna Ibe had six kills on eight swings (.675) in the win. Fellow freshman Claire Nussbaum paced the offense with 39 assists — the team hit .303 — and she added 10 digs in the win.
Princeton has won a league-best 14 Ivy League titles, though it hasn't won any since 2007. The Ivy League title has been shared four times in its history, including last year (Yale and Harvard). Only once has more than two teams shared the title; in 2004, Princeton, Cornell, Harvard and Yale each shared the title, and Cornell won the four-team playoff to advance to the NCAA tournament.
If Princeton wins tomorrow and both Harvard and Dartmouth lose, the Tigers would be outright champions and clinch a berth in the NCAA tournament. If Princeton and Harvard, OR Princeton, Harvard and Dartmouth, win, there would be a playoff next weekend at Harvard. If Princeton and Dartmouth win, the Tigers would host Dartmouth next weekend for the Ivy League title.
