NJIT Home-And-Home, Top-10 Opponent Highlight Important Week For Princeton Volleyball

WEEKLY LINKS
March 5 vs. NJIT: Live Video l Live Stats
March 8 at NJIT: Live Video l Live Stats
March 9 vs. Lewis: Live Video l Live Stats

The first-place Princeton men's volleyball team will spend the week in New Jersey with two major objectives in mind. The Tigers want to make sure they end the week alone atop the EIVA standings, and they'll look for their highest-ranked win of the series Saturday night before a 12-day break for mid-terms.

Princeton (8-8, 6-1 EIVA) will play a home-and-home series against NJIT, starting Tuesday night at 7 pm at Dillon Gym on ESPN+ (see links above). The return match will take place Friday night in Newark at 6 pm, and then Princeton will return to Dillon Gym Saturday night for a 7 pm home showdown against the 7th-ranked Lewis Flyers.

Princeton saw its six-match league win streak end Saturday at Saint Francis, but last weekend also produced the Tigers' third straight win over Penn State (the first time that has happened in program history), and it also left the Tigers one match up on Penn State, George Mason and Saint Francis at the midway point of the league season. Princeton has never hosted the EIVA Championships, but it can take a significant step this week against NJIT (4-9, 0-5 EIVA), which has little margin for error in the league race.

The Tigers continue to have one of the best 1-2 punches in the league in Parker Dixon and George Huhmann, both of whom rank in the EIVA Top 5 in both points and kills this season. Huhmann was brilliant last weekend, recording 33 kills and 39 points in the matches against both Penn State and Saint Francis. Classmate Greg Luck has turned it on since the beginning of conference play, and he ranks ninth in the league in kills during EIVA matches; no other team has three players in the Top 10 in kills during conference play.

Naturally, if you are getting significant kill totals from a variety of players, you must be getting strong play from the setter position. Sophomore Joe Kelly has shown impressive growth in his second season as a starter, and he ranks second in the league (overall and conference play) in assists/set, and Princeton ranks second in team hitting percentage.

Lewis (14-4) made a jump to seventh in the latest AVCA poll following a win over Loyola last weekend. The Flyers will enter Saturday night on a seven-match win streak, and they rank in the top five nationally in both blocks (2nd, 2.71), hitting percentage (4th, .328) and service aces (5th, 1.76). Princeton is 0-3 all-time against Lewis.

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