Despite Career Night By Mattaliano, Volleyball Drops First Ivy Match 3-2 At Yale

Friday, November 4

New Haven, CT

7:00 PM

Princeton University

16-4, 10-1Ivy

Yale

16-4, 9-2Ivy

Princeton

Yale

Photo by: Princeton Athletic Communications

Despite Career Night By Mattaliano, Volleyball Drops First Ivy Match 3-2 At Yale

November 04, 2016 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Senior Cara Mattaliano had arguably the best night in her historic Princeton career, but Yale had just enough to end the Tigers' 14-match win streak and stay alive in the Ivy League championship race.

And now the race gets very exciting.

Yale fought off one match ball and played a terrific fifth set to claim a 18-25, 25-16, 21-25, 26-24, 15-11 victory over Princeton to move within one match of the Tigers in the Ivy championship race. Princeton (16-4, 11-1 Ivy) heads to Providence Saturday at 5 pm to face Brown, while Yale will stay home for a Senior Night showdown against Penn.

Mattaliano, the 2015 Ivy League Player of the Year and the 13th player in Princeton history with 1,000 career kills, posted a career-best 24 kills Friday night in New Haven. She added 19 digs, two aces and a block, while freshman Maggie O'Connell added 21 kills and hit .395 in the loss. Classmate Devon Peterkin added 12 kills and 11 digs for the Tigers, who never led in the fifth set. They got within a point at 10-9, but Yale won four of the next five to take full control of the match.

Princeton had its best chance in the fourth set, when an O'Connell kill gave Princeton a match ball at 24-23. Yale's Brittani Steinberg, who trails only Mattaliano in the Ivy League kills race, put a swing away to tie it, and then put down an overpass to grab a 25-24 lead. She finished off the three-point run to give Yale both the set and full momentum in a match the Bulldogs needed to win.