Princeton Men's Volleyball 2020 Season Guide
12/26/2019
Rankings
The Tigers were selected at No. 10 in the AVCA preseason poll, its highest ranking in program history.Princeton garnered 88 points to earn its No. 10 ranking, eclipsing the No. 11 ranking it earned during the 1998 season. The Tigers were No. 11 in the April 11 and April 18 polls during the 1998 season.
Princeton was chosen to repeat as conference champions in the EIVA preseason poll. Garnering seven first-place votes, the Tigers were picked first picked first out of the EIVA's eight teams. Princeton received 62 points in the poll; the team receiving the second-highest amount of votes was the Penn State with 53
Recapping 2019
The Tigers had a stellar 2019 campaign, both hosting capturing the EIVA Championship after a 3-2 (28-26, 22-25, 25-18, 20-25, 15-13) victory over Penn State inside Dillon Gymnasium on Saturday, April 20. The Tigers also earned their first NCAA Tournament win after taking down Barton College 3-1 (25-23, 25-21, 18-25, 25-20) in the opening round inside Wilson Gymnasium on Thursday, April 25.
Princeton ended the season with an 18-13 overall record and a 13-1 record in EIVA play. George Huhmann and Parker Dixon were honored as AVCA All-American honorable mention selections while Huhmann was EIVA Player of the Year and Shweisky Coach of the Year.
Huhmann and Dixon were named to the All-EIVA first team while Greg Luck and Joe Kelly were All-EIVA second team honorees, along with Kendall Ratter.
The Schedule
Princeton’s slate is highlighted by nine home matches and seven opponents who were ranked inside the top-15 of the final American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) poll of 2019. Princeton’s schedule also includes three teams that participated the 2019 NCAA Tournament; Pepperdine University, the University of Southern California and Lewis University.
Head Coach Sam Shweisky
Sam Shweisky, who was named EIVA Head Coach of the Year for the second time in his career in 2019, led the Tigers to the EIVA Championship last season and to their first ever victory at the NCAA Tournament. He has led Princeton to four EIVA championship matches and will begin his 11th season as head coach of the Princeton men's volleyball team when the 2020 season begins. Shweisky has coached 28 All-EIVA players and three EIVA Newcomers of the Year, including current senior George Huhmann. Huhmann was also honored as the Uvaldo Acosta Memorial EIVA Player of the Year in 2019, becoming the first player in program honor to win the prestigious award. Shweisky has led the Tigers to the EIVA semifinals eight of his ten seasons, and he has taken them to the 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2019 EIVA Finals.
We are all very excited to start the season with some very high caliber opponents. We always love coming to the west coast to start the season and are extremely grateful to UCI, Pepperdine, and USC for hosting us. The guys are super pumped up for the opportunity to compete.
Rupert Joins Coaching Staff
Rupert, a native of Chalfont, Pennsylvania, was a member of the men's volleyball team at BYU from 2015 until 2018. He will further add to the Tigers' winning culture; during his time at BYU his Cougar teams made to it NCAA Championship Matches in 2017 and 2016 along with the NCAA Semifinals in 2018. His BYU squads were also the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Regular Season champions in 2018, 2017 and 2016 along with the MPSF Tournament champions in 2018 and 2016. Most recently, Rupert played professional volleyball in Croatia for Mladost Ribola Kaštela.
The Newcomers
Familiar Faces
