Tigers Open Final EIVA Home Stretch With Showdown vs. Ivy Rival Harvard

Harvard at Princeton (April 5, 7 pm): Live Video l Live Stats
Sacred Heart at Princeton (April 6, 5 pm): Live Video l Live Stats

The Princeton men's volleyball team knows this for certain — it won't leave New Jersey over the next two weekends.

Whether it can extend that statement one additional weekend ... well, that's where half the EIVA drama rests right now.

The other half of the drama? You can ask Friday's opponent about that.

Princeton (11-12, 9-1 EIVA) enters the second-to-last weekend of the regular season alone in first place in the Eastern standings, though it is a tenuous one-match lead over Penn State with four matches to play. Those two teams meet in the season finale, and since Princeton defeated Penn State in the first matchup this season, the Tigers could clinch the tiebreaker over the Nittany Lions with a home win on Senior Day.

To be in that position in the first place means taking care of business this weekend, which starts Friday at 7 pm against the only other Ivy League program in men's volleyball, Harvard. This rivalry has never needed added incentives to create interest in the match, but there will be plenty of incentives this time in Dillon Gym. While Princeton is playing to host the EIVA playoffs, Harvard is in a desperate chase just to get there. The Crimson are currently 5-5 in EIVA play, two matches behind both George Mason and Saint Francis, but Harvard will host George Mason in the final two matches of the league season.

To assure itself a chance to make a run at Mason, Harvard will need to do a better job this Friday of containing two-time EIVA Offensive Player of the Week Parker Dixon, who had 20 kills and hit .563 in an early-season victory in Cambridge. George Huhmann added 15 kills in that one, while reigning EIVA Defensive Player of the Week Kendall Ratter had nine kills, six digs and two aces in that win.

Princeton will host Sacred Heart Saturday at 5 pm to close the first of two straight home weekends; Greg Luck led Princeton with 13 kills in a 3-0 sweep at Sacred Heart in the first meeting.

One of Princeton's unsung heroes this season has been sophomore setter Joe Kelly, one of two EIVA players with more than 800 assists this season. Kelly has helped the Princeton offense post the second-most efficient hitting percentage (.269) in the league this season, and he is one of five starters averaging more than a dig per set on the season.

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