Ivy Champ Princeton Pushes No. 10 BYU In NCAAs, But Cougars Advance 3-0

Friday, December 2

Provo, UT

9:00 PM

Princeton University

19-5, 13-1Ivy

BYU

28-3, 16-2WCC

Princeton

BYU

Photo by: Aaron Cornia

Ivy Champ Princeton Pushes No. 10 BYU In NCAAs, But Cougars Advance 3-0

December 02, 2016 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

The 2016 Ivy League champions left the court at BYU Friday knowing they did exactly what they hoped in their first trip to the NCAA tournament since 2007. They played Tiger volleyball, and they played it together. On most nights, against most opponents, that was enough.

On this one, it fell just short.

The Ivy League champion Princeton women's volleyball team pushed 10th-ranked BYU to the limit in two of the three sets, but the host Cougars fed off a strong presence at the net and the energy of 2,696 fans in the Smith Fieldhouse to hold off the Tigers. The 25-22, 25-15, 25-23 victory sends BYU to the NCAA second round against UNLV, an upset winner over Utah earlier in the night, while Princeton ended a thrilling Ivy championship season with a 19-5 record.

Freshman Maggie O'Connell, the Ivy League Rookie of the Year, led all players with 12 kills and hit .286, while two-time Ivy League Player of the Year Cara Mattaliano added 11 kills and 14 digs. The offensive attack was balanced — the four other starters had at least three kills apiece — but BYU's strength at the net kept the Ivy's most efficient team to a .084 attack percentage. The Cougars had 14 blocks, including a run of them in the middle set that broke that one open.

The other two were thrillers, with Princeton holding one-point leads at or after the 20-point mark in both. The Tigers led 20-19 in the first set, but a 3-0 BYU run and then an Amy Boswell kill closed the 25-22 win. The Tigers bounced back after the second set and kept it close early, though BYU ran off five straight points to open an 18-14 lead.

If you watched this team at any point this season — and especially when it trailed Cornell 5-0 in the fifth set on the night the Tigers ultimately clinched their NCAA berth — you knew it would have one more stand.

Princeton scored the next three points, and then after a run of sideouts, the Tigers got a kill from All-Ivy setter Jessie Harris, another from Mattaliano and a pair of hitting errors to ultimately grab a 22-21 lead. BYU answered with three straight to set up two match points.

Mattaliano saved the first with the 1,112th — and final — kill of her brilliant Princeton career. The Tigers dug two BYU swings on the second attempt, but Veronica Jones-Perry was able to close it with a kill to the deep center of the court.

The Tigers joined together in a team circle in the middle of the court for several minutes, then shared moments and photos with family members who found their way to Provo to celebrate the 16th Ivy League championship season for Princeton. At the post-match press conference, both Mattaliano and Brittany Ptak shared their thoughts about how special this team, and their senior season, was, while O'Connell emotionally talked about how much she would miss her senior teammates when the next season began.

O'Connell was one of four underclassmen to start for the Ivy champs at BYU, and one of five returning starters for the two-time Ivy League champions. They will miss the talent, presence and leadership of Mattaliano, Ptak and Lauren Miller, but they will be better for their experiences with them, and for the experience of the NCAA match at BYU.

They left Smith Fieldhouse Friday night just as they entered.

Together.

And champions.