Women's Volleyball Set For Home Opener & Maryland Tournament

Match Three: Princeton (2-0) vs. Santa Clara (5-0), 9/5 – 7 p.m. ET
Match Four: Princeton (2-0) vs. Coastal Carolina (2-4), 9/8 – 12 p.m. ET
Match Five: Princeton (2-0) vs. UMBC (3-2), 9/8 – 6 p.m. ET
Match Six: Princeton (2-0) vs. Maryland (4-1), 9/9 – 2:30 p.m. ET
Watch: Santa Clara | Santa Clara International Feed | Coastal Carolina | UMBC | Maryland
Live Stats: Santa Clara | Coastal Carolina | UMBC | Maryland
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PRINCETON, N.J. – The Princeton University women's volleyball team will look to build off a 2-0 start to the 2023 season with four upcoming matches, including its home opener against Santa Clara along with the Maryland Tournament.

Locations
Princeton will face Coastal Carolina and Maryland inside the Xfinity Center Pavilion in College Park, Maryland, and UMBC in Baltimore, Maryland, inside Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena.

An Impressive Start
The Tigers got the season off to a strong start at the Bucknell Tournament on Sept. 2, recording a 3-0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-20) win over Niagara followed by a 3-0 (25-18, 25-20, 25-11) victory over the host Bison.

Sophomore Lucia Scalamandre and freshman Sydney Draper led the way for Princeton and were named to the All-Tournament Team. Scalamandre, the 2022 Ivy League Rookie of the Year, picked up where she left off last season leading the Tigers in kills with 21 on a .594 hitting percentage and blocks with eight. Draper led Princeton in assists with 66 and tied for the team-high in digs with freshmen Sydney Bold with 21. Draper recorded double-doubles in both matches, finishing with 37 assists and 11 digs against Niagara and 29 assists and 10 digs against Bucknell. Sophomore Ella Bunde's two service aces also led the team in that category.

Sophomore Valerie Nutakor also impressed for the Tigers, combing for 18 kills and 14 digs, and junior Shelby Fulton tied her career-high in kills with eight against the Purple Eagles

The Tigers hit an impressive .352 across both matches and limited their opponents to a hitting percentage of .118. Princeton put down 90 kills to Niagara and Bucknell's 37 and also did not commit a ball handling error in either match. The Tiger also recorded 13 blocks to their opponents five.

The Pursuit of Ivy Title No. 20
The Tigers aim to continue its tradition of success in 2023 and capture a 20th Ivy League Championship. A conference championship in 2023 would also be the Tigers' second-straight and third in the past four seasons. Princeton's 19 Ivy titles are the most by any team in the conference, with Yale's 12 coming in second.

Head Coach Sabrina King
A three-time Ivy Coach of the Year (2019, 2016, 2015), King has guided Princeton to five Ivy titles (2022, 2019, 2017, 2016, 2015). King has also coached four Ivy Players of the Year and spent seven seasons as an assistant coach, winning conference championships in 2007 and 2004. As a player, King won three Ivy titles, was named All-Ivy League on three occasions and was the 1999 Ivy Player of the Year.

Scouting The Opponents
Santa Clara have a 5-0 record in 2023, and are coming off a 3-2 (23-25, 25-21, 18-25, 25-23, 15-9) triumph over Notre Dame in Villanvoa, Pa., on Sept. 2 at the Catholic Challenge. Coastal Carolina have a 2-4 record on the season, and suffered a 3-1 (16-25, 25-16, 25-15, 25-22) setback to Georgia on Sept. 2. UMBC are 3-2, taking down Fairfield 3-1 (26-24, 15-25, 25-19, 25-22) in their most recent match. The Terrapins are 4-1 and are coming off a 3-1 (20-25, 25-22, 25-8, 27-25) triumph over Utah Valley on Sept. 2.

The Returning Ivy Rookie of the Year
Luca Scalamandre, the 2022 Ivy Rookie of the Year, will look to build off a dominant freshman campaign. Also named ECAC Rookie of the Year and First Team All-Ivy, Scalamandre was a seven-time Ivy Rookie of the Week in 2022. She led the Ivy League in total blocks (104), a number that also ranked third all-time in program history for most blocks in a season. Scalamandre ranked first in the Ivy League, 39th in the nation in blocks per set (1.27) and had 10 matches with at least five blocks. In addition, Scalamandre ranked third on the team in points (266) and points per set (3.24).

The Returners
Joining Scalamandre as a returner will be seniors Kathleen Bishop, Julia Cabri and Maya Satchell, juniors Gracie Wood, Shelby Fulton, Nicole Dankinova and Mariah Haislip, and sophomores Valerie Nutakor and Ella Bunde.

Five Talented Newcomers
Sydney Bold, Kamryn Chaney, Ava Harrington, Erin McNair and Sydney Draper will be making their college volleyball debuts at the Bucknell Tournament.

A Summer of Service
Erin McNair spent two weeks in Kenya over the summer with HEART (Health Education Africa Resource Team), a faith-based humanitarian organization that focuses on empowering vulnerable women, children, and youth in Africa to thrive beyond HIV. The WEEP mother's (Women's Equality Empowerment Program) is one of the many programs that HEART has in which they provide single, vulnerable mother with skills and resources to overcome their current situations to provide for them kids and themselves. The experience was so impactful for McNair that she has decided to take Swahili at Princeton to further pursue the culture in hopes of returning in the future.

Summer Standouts
McNair wasn't the only Tiger to have a busy summer. Kathleen Bishop worked at the German Aerospace Center, Ella Bunde studied abroad at the London School of Economics, Gracie Wood was a Clinical Science Intern at the Topcon Healthcare Innovation Center (THINC) division with Topcon Healthcare, Mariah Haislip was a Summer Fellow with J.P. Morgan Asset & Wealth Management – U.S. Private Bank, Nicole Dankinova interned with Morocco World News, Shelby Fulton took an online course on machine learning and did personal coding projects, Valerie Nutakor worked as a patient safety assistant at a hospital while obtaining an EMT certification and Julia Cabri was an intern with Exabeam, a cyber security company in the Bay Area.

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