Volleyball Seeks Third Straight Ivy League Title During Season's Final Weekend

LIVE VIDEO: Harvard l Dartmouth
LIVE STATS: Harvard l Dartmouth

Not even two weeks ago, Princeton walked off the court fearing its championship dreams were over.

Now, the Tigers will look to do something that hasn't been done since 1980-82 — bring a third straight Ivy League women's volleyball title back to Princeton.

Princeton (16-6, 9-3 Ivy) heads into the final weekend of the 2017 Ivy League season in a first-place tie with Yale, and two matches ahead of both Harvard and Penn (7-5 each). Both Princeton and Yale will end their seasons with road doubleheaders, and a win by either team at any point this weekend would eliminate both Harvard and Penn.

Should Princeton and Yale both sweep or split their respective weekends and end up as Ivy League co-champions, they would meet the following weekend in New Haven, Conn., in a one-match playoff for the Ivy League's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Yale earned the tiebreaker with a 4-3 advantage in sets won during the head-to-head matches this season.

Of course, nobody at Princeton is worried about Yale right now. The Tigers' sole focus is on the always-challenging Harvard-Dartmouth road trip, which they have swept only once in the last four years (2016). The Crimson (Friday, 7 pm), which helped get the Tigers back into a first-place tie with a 3-2 comeback win at Yale last weekend, ranks just behind Princeton in offensive efficiency this season (.243, while Princeton is .247), and setter Erin McCarthy is just behind Princeton's Jessie Harris in assists this season (10.30, while Harris is 10.39).

On Saturday, the Tigers will face a Dartmouth team playing its Senior Day match (5 pm), and a Big Green defense that has been one of the best in the league this season. Dartmouth leads the Ivy League in blocks (2.49 per set), and it ranks second in the league in opponent hitting percentage (.191).

Both matches will be streamed live on the Ivy League Network (see links above).

Princeton has found its form after dropping three out of four matches in the middle of the Ivy League season, thanks in part to a balanced offensive attack. Junior middle Caroline Sklaver became the fourth different Tiger to earn Ivy League Player of the Week honors this season after hitting over .500 in a sweep of Cornell and Columbia last weekend, and she joined fellow middle Nnenna Ibe in the Ivy Top 3 in hitting percentage. Reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year Maggie O'Connell remains third in the Ivy League kills and points this season, while freshman Alexa Underwood has overcome a preseason injury and provided an extra boost to Princeton's offense recently. In three starts, Underwood has averaged 10.7 kills and 11.3 digs.

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