Volleyball Heads North For Challenging Dartmouth-Harvard Weekend

MATCH LINKS
ESPN+ Live Video: Dartmouth l Harvard
Live Stats: Dartmouth l Harvard

The first-place Princeton women's volleyball team returns to the road this weekend as it continues the first half of Ivy League play this season. The Tigers will make the northern trip to both Dartmouth and Harvard, two teams that will be thrilled to be back on their home courts following a challenging weekend in New York. Both matches will be streamed live on ESPN+, and you can find both links at the top of this story.

Princeton (10-4, 3-0 Ivy) is one of two unbeaten teams in Ivy League play (Cornell), and it is coming off an impressive 3-1 win over Yale last Saturday night. Reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Maggie O'Connell was at her best in the big spot, recording 21 kills and hitting .441 on her way to earning Ivy Player of the Week honors. O'Connell has moved up to fourth in the Ivy League in kills/set (3.39), and she also ranks sixth in hitting percentage (.330).

The Ivy League leader in hitting percentage is Clare Lenihan (.371), a first-year starter who has provided a big offensive punch this season to the middle position. She had 18 kills and hit .405 in the win over Yale, her sixth match with double-digit kills. Three-year starter and tri-captain Jessie Harris is the Ivy League leader in assists (11.6), a total that ranks eighth-best in the NCAA.

Dartmouth (5-8, 1-2 Ivy) opened the Ivy season with a home victory over Harvard, and it closed the 2017 Ivy season with a home win over Princeton, which forced the Tigers to win an Ivy League playoff match in New Haven. The Big Green, which lost at both Columbia and Cornell last weekend, has been the league's toughest team on the defensive block; Dartmouth leads the Ivies with 2.38 blocks per set, and they have two of the league's three individual leaders in the category in Francesca Meldrum (2nd, 1.24) and Tola Akinwumi (3rd, 1.22).

Harvard (5-7, 0-3 Ivy) also suffered a road sweep last weekend, but the Crimson will get their first two Ivy home matches of the season this weekend. Harvard's Maclaine Fields currently leads the league in blocks (1.32), while senior teammate Anna Uhr leads in aces (0.45).

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